Online passwords are sensitive data. When they end up in the wrong hands, your private information is at risk. Since cybercriminals are always searching out new ways to break into those online accounts, you need to watch over the passwords to your accounts as if they were your children.

Since we typically access our accounts on a daily basis, using browsers and online apps for our banking and shopping, we need to periodically take some time to manage them, to ensure the security and strength of our passwords.

Here’s few tips to help you do that:

• Create unique, strong password of some length for each of your online accounts – and change them often, particularly for the accounts you use for transactions.
• Use a combination of characters, numbers, and symbols to add complexity to the password’s strength.
• Whenever you can, enable a two-factor authentication process in your accounts for added security protection.
  

To further strengthen your online accounts, you should also use a password manager. Trend Micro Password Manager helps you manage all your online passwords and makes it easier to change them easily on a regular basis. It delivers your passwords across all your devices—whether they’re PCs, Macs, Android, or iOS devices—generates ultra-secure passwords, and safeguards them with AES 256-bit encryption, to protect them from hackers and crackers.

Used in conjunction with Trend Micro Pay Guard, which is enabled with every installation of Trend Micro Security (which also bundles Trend Micro Password Manager with every subscription of Trend Micro Maximum Security), you’ll be doing your part to protect yourself from the theft of your passwords, particularly on financial and banking websites.