As the internet fills with Star Wars memes today, and everyone is still talking about yesterday’s Google Docs scam, it’s fortuitous that this also happens to be World Password Day.
Dell is one of many champions for this annual first Thursday of May celebration to promote better password habits — which can be as easy as taking these four steps:
- Create strong passwords
- Use a different password for each account
- Get a password manager
- Turn on multi-factor authentication
I like to think I’m pretty good at step one, but step two… well, according to a recent study by Gigya, 70 percent of us use seven or fewer passwords across all of our online accounts. That’s a lot of room for improvement.
This year, the organizers of World Password Day are putting special focus on that fourth step, though. The call to action is for you to “#LayerUp Your Login” by enabling multi-factor authentication such as a code sent to your phone.
Another extra layer of protection that can increase the safety of your online accounts is a fingerprint. Familiar to many of us through our smart phones, fingerprint sensors are also available on our XPS 13 and XPS 15 laptops for password-free sign-in.
“As you’d expect, the fingerprint reader is fully compatible with Windows Hello, meaning you can use it as a means of securing both your PC and compatible apps,” noted Windows Central.
But even with the option to access your system this way, passwords remain critical gatekeepers to our digital identities when we access online banking, email, and social media.
So to find out if “the fourth” is with you today, go take the quiz at passwordday.org to check your security IQ!
Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles.
From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life.
Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.