An announcement from the Dundee Bank IT Department…

We’ve heard the same advice over and over when it comes to passwords—make it strong. But how many of us actually follow this advice? Would you believe that some of the most popular passwords are still “password”, “123456”, “qwerty”, and “abc123”?

For World Password Day, we want to offer a few tips to make sure your passwords are up to snuff.

Tips for securing passwords

1. Create a strong password that uses numbers, caps, and special characters
2. Use unique passwords for each account
3. Set up a secure password manager

You’re probably thinking “it’s hard to remember multiple strong passwords.” To help you out, here’s how you can choose something easy to remember, but hard to crack.

1. Start with your favorite song, movie, or book. Use the first letter of each word. So, if your jam is “I love our IT department”, that would make it “IloITD”.
2. You could then increase the complexity by changing out any vowels with numbers. That makes it “1l01TD”.
3. Now add a special character, such as “!” or “$”. Your password would now be “1l01TD!”.
4. Turn it into a passphrase for good measure. Something like: “!l01TD!@Dundee” or “!l01TD!@SSBank”.
5. Make sure it’s at least 14 to 16 characters long.
6. If this is still too much to remember, visit lastpass.com/generatepassword.php to generate your own unique password.

– Your Dundee Bank IT Department