The Heartbleed software bug caught the web by storm, affecting a huge number of websites and online services that are now hurrying to patch the security bug. Internet users have little they can do right now, aside from checking whether the websites they access on a regular basis are affected in any way – especially those sites where they have user accounts – and then changing their passwords for those sites once they have been patched. Changing a password now would not have any effect on a site that’s still vulnerable to Heartbleed, as hackers would still be able to access passwords no matter how complex they’d be.
With that said, however, people looking to set up stronger passwords than “password” or “123456” in the future should check out this handy infographic from WebpageFX, which can help them come up with better passwords.
In the infographic, the company explains that users should change passwords for online services on a regular basis, advising them to choose more complex character combinations that could prevent hackers from quickly strong-arming their way into guessing their passwords in the future. The company also advises users not to recycle passwords between services, to avoid common words and obvious patterns that are easy to guess, to stay away from using personal details in passwords, and not to share any passwords with other people in any other way.
While the infographic doesn’t mention it, a good idea to securing passwords would be using a password manager program tool, such as 1Password or LastPass. A similar infographic from WhoIsHostingThis.com also shares tips on creating better passwords.
The full WebpageFX infographic follows below.
