The critical importance of creating secure passwords

It only takes one weak password to put your accounts, personal information, and money at risk. This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, take a few minutes to strengthen your first line of defense with secure, unique passwords that are much harder for cybercriminals to crack, and ensure multifactor authentication (MFA) is enabled.

A weak or reused password is no longer just a personal security risk. As the Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) observed this year, infostealers can quietly harvest saved passwords, browser cookies and authentication tokens, then give cybercriminals the access they need to take over accounts, compromise cloud environments or launch ransomware attacks. With stolen credentials increasingly serving as the front door to larger attacks, protecting all your account starts with stronger, unique passwords and safer online habits.

A lot rides on your login credentials. Today, protecting them requires more than a strong password.

AI is helping cybercriminals create more convincing phishing messages, automate attacks, and test stolen credentials at scale. It also makes it incredibly easy for them to carry out dictionary attacks by rapidly testing common words and predictable variations against accounts. At the same time, infostealers can quietly capture passwords, browser cookies and authentication tokens from an infected device. A password can be long, complex and unique, but it cannot protect an account if it is stolen.

MFA is a priority for every important account. MFA adds another verification step, such as an authentication app, security key or passkey, so a stolen password alone is not enough to sign in. When available, choose phishing-resistant methods such as passkeys or security keys instead of text-message codes.

Do not assume MFA is already active. Open the security settings for your email, financial, social media, and other sensitive accounts and confirm that it is enabled. Then pair MFA with a unique password for every account, ideally generated and stored in a trusted password manager. Strong passwords still matter, but in an AI-enabled threat landscape, MFA must be part of the baseline.

So, how safe is your password? The experts at Statista prepared a chart showing how long it takes to crack passwords of different sizes, lengths, and complexity. Spoiler: longer and more complex is the way to go. What are you going to do to protect your passwords? We have some ideas.

1. Move to longer passwords with at least one number, symbol and uppercase letter
2. Avoid common phrases, pet names, spouse names, kids’ names, car models, etc.
3. Don’t share your passwords with others
4. Avoid re-using passwords on multiple sites. Reason: if one gets hacked, they all get hacked
5. Don’t use sequential numbers or letters (abc, 123, etc.)
6. Don’t store your password list in plain text on your computer
7. Never use your email password for other sites
8. Don’t just add the current year to your current password
9. Create unique passwords without using common names
10. Don’t use dictionary words, that’s what cracking tools use

Cybercriminals and their tools are more sophisticated than you think, so by taking a few extra steps now, it can save you time, money and aggravation later.

A couple of extra steps now can help protect you later. We also recommend making sure you have a comprehensive cyber protection solution as technology moves quickly, and cyber threats continue to evolve. Acronis True Image combines trusted backup, AI-powered cyber protection, and support for modern devices to help you protect important data, recover with confidence, and keep your digital life ready for what comes next.