April 24, 2025 – How secure are your passwords? World Password Day is coming up on
May 2 and it’s the perfect time to review your passwords and see if there is room
for improvement in your security practices.
Passwords are an unavoidable part of life now, and as important as they are, many people have poor habits when it comes to password management. When creating passwords, there are two very important things to keep in mind:
- The password should be long, at least 16 characters. An 8-character password takes minutes to crack using brute-force software, while a 16-character password can take billions of years to guess;
- Your passwords should be unique across all of your accounts. When one of your accounts gets compromised due to a data breach (which will happen eventually) - if you have reused that password on other accounts - those accounts are now also compromised.
Another step to securing your accounts is to enable multi-factor authentication where possible. This takes your account security a step further by adding an additional verification method other than just a password.
Be sure to review your passwords regularly to practice good account security.
For more information, contact CSUCI's Information Security Team at infosec@csuci.edu or visit the ITS Information Security website.