Want stronger passwords? Understand these 4 common password security myths

Talking about password security is a guaranteed crowd-snoozer, a surefire way to make people shut down and tune out, but the reality is that passwords are still important. Email or social media, online banking or gaming, educational applications or online services—anything that keeps some kind of user data still depends on passwords to keep miscreants out. Attackers will continue merrily looting bank accounts and taking over online services if users don’t step up and use better passwords.

We all know the basics—don’t use “password” and don’t repeat the same password across different accounts. Turn on two-factor authentication on online accounts wherever possible—one-time passwords via SMS messages is still better than nothing. Use a password manager to track all the passwords. Unfortunately, a lot of password advice sounds reasonable, but needs context to be helpful. Following are some ubiquitous password myths, clarified.

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