We use these strings of characters to protect access to our applications, platforms and services. This prevents other people from using those platforms or stealing our private data, among many other things. This is precisely why we often do not pay enough attention to the passwords we use on a daily basis.
And despite the recommendations and advice that we have been hearing for many years in this regard, many users still do not take them seriously. As we have already mentioned many times, these passwords should be complex and never repeated on different sites. Now we are going to talk about a key model quite common and that you should always avoid, the so-called Keyword walk.
When we talk about this password format, we specifically refer to those that we generate through a random sequence of charactersbut that are accessible and easy to remember. The most common practice in this regard is to define this key based on a series of keys that are attached to the keyboard. One of the most common examples is passwords QWERTY or ASDFG.
It is quite likely that many of you are familiar with them and even use them regularly. They are characters that are found next to each other on the keyboard, and although they look complex passwordsare actually more dangerous than they initially appear.
How to protect your platforms and data with other passwords
It should be noted that malicious actors are fully aware of the widespread use of these keyword walks. Hence, one of the first tests they carry out is based on these sequences that many use to protect their applications and platforms. This is something that extends to passwords composed of numeric characters such as 12345 or 98765, for example.
It is true that memorizing complex passwords, all of them different for each of the platforms on which we register, is an almost impossible task. But before using these Keyword walk or even simpler ones, it is preferable to use a password manager.
These are both local and online programs that store all of our personal passwords, encrypted and protected under a master key. What’s more, if we don’t want to use specific programs for these tasks, some of the main web browsers currently have their own password manager.
For example, this is the case of Google Chrome that offers us this additional function, which allows us to store and use our password personal data directly from the application. In addition, all of this is done in a protected manner so that these character strings cannot fall into the wrong hands. Whatever method you use, resorting to the aforementioned Keyword walk is never a good idea, especially in these times.