Assuming you have installed firewalls and anti-malware programmes, your password is one of the single biggest ways you can protect your business and yourself from security breaches, according to online garage management system CarVue.
Among the worst passwords used in 2010 according to SplashData are ‘123456’, ‘password’ and ‘qwerty’.
Other notable ‘bad’ passwords included ‘football’, ‘login’ and ‘starwars’.
Alex Knight of CarVue said: “Don’t use the same password for multiple sites and functions especially when it comes to banking and work systems, plus don’t have a shared password for work systems, like CarVue, and delete any passwords belonging to former employees.
What’s a good password?
“Use a variety of letters, numbers and symbols with the recommended number of characters being at least 12, one technique is to come up with a phrase taking the first letter of each word, for example, ‘my first pet was an iguana called Iggy although he wasn’t much fun to take out for a walk’ becomes ‘mfpwaicIahwmfttofaw’.
“Even better would be to change some of those letters to numbers and symbols so ‘mfpw@icIahwmf2t0faw’.
Related: Garage databases are being hacked by fraudsters, experts fear
“There are plenty of password software programmes available where you only have to remember the one password to access the system and it generates random passwords for everything else you use and automatically logs you on.
“Yes, we know it’s a pain, but change your password regularly, unless you are using a password manager and it does it all for you.”
To find out more about CarVue and to sign up for free, click ‘more details’ below.
