I’ve got bad news for you. Your password isn’t that good. I don’t care if it’s a bunch of random letters and numbers never shared with a soul. I don’t care if it is 12 words long and has capital letters, irregular characters, and numbers. I mean, you don’t want 123456 or password as your password, but a complicated password isn’t enough to stop crooks. Here’s why.
The vast majority of hacks aren’t perpetrated by someone trying different passwords. It’s either a computer program automatically and rapidly going through different combinations or more likely, information someone purchased off the dark web. Now, they didn’t get the information about your credit card password from you; they got it when they hacked into the point of sale system at the store you visited or got through a security flaw on your bank’s website or at your doctor’s office or even on a government computer.
To protect yourself, you must enable multi-factor authentication. That means you’ll face an additional step to get into your account. That could be a code or a text sent via email, and in some cases a phone call. That might be okaying all log-ins with an authenticator app on your phone.
Yeah, I know it’s a pain. But not nearly as painful as losing money or your account. If you aren’t sure if multi-factor authentication is available for a service you use, check and find out right now. It is the number one way to protect yourself.