How to maximize your cyber security

The Waterloo-based cyber security company eSentire says people need to be more careful when picking the perfect password. Though the list of password requirements continues to grow, the company says a longer password is often still not enough to keep you safe.

“If someone wants to get that information, there are ultimately ways to acquire that information,” said Ryan Westman, senior manager for threat intelligence at eSentire Inc.

Westman said face or thumb recognition won’t stop hackers. He suggested people and businesses use tools like password managers, paired with multi-factor authentication.

“A password manager basically acts as a vault. So you'll have one password to access the vault and inside that password manager you can have generated passwords you can use for your various online services,” said Westman. “If one of those parties do get breached, there is another way to verify you as an authentication measure.”

Westman said it is important to take the proper steps and add extra layers of protection to increase your personal cyber hygiene.

According to security company Cisco Canada, many people recycle passwords or use the same one for many different services.

“The attackers know this and they are searching for easy-to-guess passwords on a continuous basis,” Dave Lewis, a global advisory chief information officer at Cisco Canada, told CTV News earlier this year.

According to the mobile security firm Lookout, these five passwords are the most often hacked:

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. qwerty
4. password
5. 12345

 

With files from CTV Toronto.