One of the first things people are taught when it comes to staying safe online is that they need to change their password regularly. Most corporate accounts, school accounts and others now days require you to make changes every month or so because they want to keep the accounts as safe as possible.
According to the FTC’s Chief Technologist Lorrie Cranor, however, this may not actually be the case. She said, “I have heard from many users that they include the month (and sometimes year) of the password change in their passwords as an easy way to remember frequently changed passwords.”
This comment was part of what she was saying when discussing the fact that the vast majority of people who have to change passwords frequently don’t use strong passwords. Instead they will use a base password with something small that changes. For example, if their password is 0201Password they may change it to 0301Password when they are required to update it in March. When a hacker or other bad actor gets into an account they can easily ‘guess’ what the updated password would be.
Changing passwords less frequently but using very secure passwords is a much safer and more effective option.
Of course, anytime there is a known hacking attempt or a known security issue it is important to change the password as quickly as possible. In normal day to day operations, however, changing the password monthly or quarterly looks like it is not nearly as good of an idea as most people think.
For marketers or anyone who works in digital marketing this will likely come as welcome news. Most digital marketers have lots of different accounts and passwords that they use for the different tools and systems that need to be accessed. Improving your security while also reducing the inconvenience of having to change your password all the time is certainly a good thing.
