Throughout my entire IT career, I was always amazed at how quickly people adapt to do things digitally, just like the internet was the real world. Just think about sending letters, buying goods, or meeting new people. It was very easy to switch to this faster, more convenient way of living without much nostalgia about the past.

Furthermore, I am always amazed that those new solutions are always consumed slightly differently than their analog equivalents.

Unfortunately, we tend not to do things by the book nor the most logical way possible. A good example of this is cybersecurity. Let me show you a simple analogy. Ask yourself, when was the last time, when you heard about a friend or a family member, who had to contact the local Mercedes or BMW garage because they lost keys to the car and were not able to drive around? Or when was the last time you realized that you left keys to your apartment on the desk in the cafeteria and anyone could simply take them? Not that often, right? You would definitely think that something went horribly wrong when you imagine that keys to your castle can be exploited by others.

How to regain access to Facebook or Instagram accounts when one has forgotten or lost a password?

Moreover, I am sure that you have heard multiple times, about people who lost access to their digital identities, social media accounts, or e-mails. I have been asked hundreds of times by customers, friends, and family members, how to regain access to Facebook or Instagram accounts when one has forgotten or lost a password. I was always wondering how many times the same person lost their car keys or ID somewhere in town?

Finally, it is not hard to secure your personal information to the level that this is basically too time-consuming for potential attackers to expose you, so they need to move to another target. In this series of articles, I will do my best to show you, in simple words, how to secure yourself online.

So without further ado, let me turn to my first advice to you, that is – use a password manager!

Yes! A password manager is something that not only frees your memory from storing multiple passwords but also increases your productivity online. Essentially, Password Manager is safe when you store all your passwords and sensitive information. So this is a very important place that requires special security measures to be deployed – very strong, ideally more than 10 characters long passphrase (sentence, not a word!) and multi-factor authentication, so you can get into your safe only when you provide what you know (your password), but also use what you have (for instance a smartphone).

So I need to remember yet another password?

Yes, kind of, but thanks to that all other passwords will be safe and will auto-populate every time you want to login to your account online, saving you lots of time.

You may ask me what Password Manager is the best, but frankly speaking, the answer is – any that you like and you use! There are several solutions out there, you can simply Google it and find a solution that suits the best platforms that you are using. I can assure you that any popular solution will be more secure and reliable than your memory.

Prevention is better than cure! I hope I see you soon!

Mateusz