You might be tempted to skip this article. You may even say to yourself, “I know how to make strong passwords,” or “Why would anyone even want to hack me?” However, the sad truth is that the majority of people don’t take proper cybersecurity precautions and are leaving themselves incredibly vulnerable in a world where hacking is becoming more and more commonplace. 

You may not believe it, but password protection, and cybersecurity in general, are some of the most important skills you should learn. It’s something everyone needs to understand, and it’s only going to become more important in the future. 

Think about how many aspects of our lives are connected to technology: financial information, personal records, communications and more. A study by the University of Maryland suggests that every 39 seconds a computer gets hacked. Our entire lives exist online, and if you don’t take the necessary steps to protect yourself, you leave yourself vulnerable.

However, in spite of all this, many Americans still engage in outdated cybersecurity practices. They make silly mistakes, like using one, easy-to-crack password for all their accounts. They use passwords based on names of family members or birthdays. Bad habits like these expose our digital lives to even more risk.

No one would go away on vacation and leave the doors unlocked, the windows open and a sign outside that says, “We won’t be home until next weekend.”

So why do we make these mistakes with our passwords?

But fear not, because I am here to help! There is a vast quantity of resources out there with advice on how to best protect yourself, but here are a few basic measures everyone should be taking in regards to their digital lives. 

First and foremost, do not use the same password for all your accounts. This is one of the most common errors, and it’s one of the most potentially dangerous. Using one password for every account means that if hackers get access to even one of your accounts, they have access to all of your information. It may seem like a hassle to have multiple passwords, but it is also a hassle to have locks installed in your house; no one would ever suggest going without locks. Security is worth the effort. At the very least, make sure your important accounts (email, school and banking) have unique passwords. 

Your passwords should not be common words that can be easily associated with you. They should be a mixture of letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers and symbols. Ideally, people should follow cybersecurity experts’ advice to move from passwords to passphrases, strings of seemingly meaningless text, in order to make accounts harder to hack. Remember: the longer the password, the better. 

Consider this example: if I made my password “theram,” it would take about 0.65 seconds for a hacker to crack. If I made my password “TheRam35” it would take about 37 seconds to crack. If I used “TheFordhamRam,” it would take about 12 hours — not bad.

However, if I used the phrase “TheFordham7RamI$theBestPaperEver” it would take a hacker one billion years to crack. See how useful a phrase can be? (If you’re curious about testing this for yourself, I recommend Password Monster, an anonymous website that allows you to check how long it would take a hacker to crack your passwords). 

However, it is possible that someone trying to hack my account would research me first, discover I am a member of The Fordham Ram and use that information to try to better guess my password. For this reason, you should use a random phrase no one would ever associate with you. A random string of words is perfect: “eleven6FOX/McShane&Magnoliablizzards?” would take about four hundred trillion years for a hacker to crack, and it seems unlikely the hacker would guess I would be using any of those words. 

As for phone passwords, don’t use your birthday or the birthday of anyone close to you. Ideally, don’t use a date at all — just choose a string of random numbers. It’s six numbers that you use everyday, so it should be easy to remember. 

Try your best not to share your passwords with anyone, and never, ever share your passwords to important websites, like your bank. You shouldn’t write all your passwords down somewhere that’s easily accessible — like a notebook or a Google Doc — either. Most cybersecurity experts recommend changing your passwords every couple of months. If that seems like too much of a burden, aim to change your important passwords at least once a year. That way, even if your password is stolen, it will soon become useless to hackers. 

Of the abundant, free cybersecurity safety resources online, the first one I recommend is a password manager, which automatically stores your password in a heavily-defended digital account. It allows you to have diverse, complex passwords without having to go to the trouble of remembering all of them. Furthermore, password managers can help by suggesting passwords that will be even more difficult for hackers to crack. 

You might also want to consider a two-step verification application, which requires multiple devices to access an important account. In order to access your MyFordham account, you need to go through a two-step verification process, using the app Duo Mobile. You can enable two-step verification for multiple accounts, making it harder for hackers to access your information. 

College is a great time to start building good password habits that will last you for the rest of your life. If you put in the time and effort now to make sure your data is sufficiently protected, you’ll save yourself a headache in the future. Don’t wait,  make sure you’re safe. A little bit of effort goes a long way. 

After reading this article, you may be curious to know if your information has ever been released in a data breach. I recommend “Have I Been Pwned,” a free website that allows you to enter your email and see if your personal information has ever been stolen in a data breach. If it has, change your passwords immediately.

Michael Sluck, FCRH ’24, is a political science and computer science major from Verona, N.J