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If 2022 has taught us anything, it is that the worst thing can happen to our online accounts when we least expect it. It was a big year in the hacking world with breach after breach. Did you know that billions of accounts have been hacked and dumped into the internet?

The good thing is that you don’t need to hire a professional to teach you how to use passwords correctly. If there is one thing you must stop doing in 2023, it is reusing passwords. Keep reading to learn why.

What Is Password Reuse?

This is a common practice where a user keeps reusing a password across several online accounts. Many individuals may reuse a password since it is simpler to remember one password than many of them. This bad technique, however, makes their accounts more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Virtually every website you visit asks you to sign up for an account and generate a new password. The average number of passwords an individual must remember is between 70 and 80. The human brain is simply not capable of keeping up with this requirement of the digital era.

With so many passwords to remember, many people choose the quickest method instead: just keep using the same password. Even if it is a strong password, this practice has severe ramifications for all of your data.

This is in no way a new phenomenon, and there is no indicator showing it is going to disappear soon. According to a Bitwarden survey, more than eight in ten Americans repeat passwords across websites, and 49% of respondents depend on memory to handle their passwords.

Why You Should Never Reuse A Password Across Many Accounts

Because passwords are typically your first line of defense when it comes to safeguarding your data, you should rely on a password that is not only strong but also unique. Otherwise, hackers can use credential stuffing to get into your accounts.

This cracking method allows hackers to use login credentials from one website that they have obtained to “stuff” them into other websites until they get a match.

Imagine you have the same password for your bank and online shopping account. If a cybercriminal somehow knows the password of your shopping account, such as from a data breach, it would be trivial for them to log in to your bank account as well. And in the business world, one stolen password can knock down safeguards and cost an organization millions of dollars.

By generating strong and unique passwords, you can increase the security of your accounts and protect them from this kind of attack.

Locker Can Help You Stop Reusing Passwords

A password management tool like Locker is an efficient and simple solution to maintain optimal password hygiene.

Locker can generate strong passwords, store them in a secure vault, and give them back to you when needed. There is no need for you to think of a new password every time you register an account and then find a way to remember it. Just let Locker do all the work.

The password generator built in Locker can create unique passwords that are tough for cyber criminals to guess. You can have a random 20-character password or even longer in a blink of an eye. It does not matter how many passwords you must manage. All you need is the master password to retrieve them any time you want.

Locker is also more than that.

It can auto-fill your login credentials for you on websites and apps. For accounts that you need to share with family, friends, or coworkers, like a joint bank account or a shared Twitter account, Locker makes it easy to share passwords without requiring multiple people to remember or write them down.

Check out Locker and its offerings – there is a free plan you can try out right away at no cost. A new year is the best time to get rid of our duplicate passwords and replace them with unique ones with Locker.