Step 1. Passwords: 

Pa55w0rd and/or Password123 are passwords that are still being used! However, passwords shouldn’t contain anything that could be social engineered back to yourselves (or be as obvious as “password123”). This means, try and stay away from pet names, family names or football clubs etc! 

The National Cyber Security Centre states passwords should contain three random words utilising upper case & lower-case characters, along with numbers and special characters.

Step 2. Create a separate password for your email:

Your email address is like your online home and your password is like your house keys. If you lose your email password, you’re in trouble! Even if you have a different password for all your other online accounts, once hackers have control of your email account, they don’t need to know any of your other account passwords!

We need to start protecting our email accounts a little bit more, there are so many stores and places we go to who ask for our email. If they asked for your home address you would be questioning it a lot more. The more people who have the details of our email address, the more likely we are to become part of a data breach. ONLY PROVIDE TO THOSE THAT REALLY NEED IT! 

Step 3. 2 Step Verification:

2 step verification, 2 factor authentication, multi factor authentication are all the same thing just wrapped in a different name. Essentially, a service provided will send a text message or email to your verification method before access is permitted. It started in the banking world but is now on every mainstream app and on many devices. Switch it on, it adds an additional layer of protection.