The Best Types of Passwords to Protect Your Identity

Every two seconds, there is a new identity theft victim. That’s 8x more than the occurrence of a car accident. The stats, trends and recent breaches are a reminder of the times we’re living in and the dangers that we all face.

Education is the best defense against identity fraud! Below are several quick tips from the Department of Homeland Security on how you can better protect yourself and your accounts by learning more about passwords. Creating a strong password can be critical to protecting your most vital information.

Simple tips to secure your information include:

• Use the longest password or passphrase allowed, and add characters in addition to numbers and letters if possible, such as $,* or !.
• Don’t make passwords easy to guess. Instead of using words, a good idea is to use the first letter of a phrase that you can remember, such as IWTGBTKH for “I want to go back to Kona, Hawaii”.
• Avoid using common words in your passwords, such as “password” “let me in” or “blank”.
• Keep your passwords secure – don’t share them with anyone, especially via email or text which are not secure methods of transmitting information. Remember, criminals may be watching.

This is also a great time to remind you that our credit union provides ID theft protection for members with AHFCU checking accounts, and their family members. Click here to learn more.