Make your passwords strong

One password that you use twice is one break-in away from two accounts. The answer is not a better password: it is a different password for each account, and a tool that remembers them for you.

Steps

7 steps

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Install a password manager.
A password manager makes a different strong password for each account and keeps them all, so you must remember only one.
Make a strong master password.
Use a passphrase of at least six words that you choose at random with dice from a word list, not words that you think of yourself.
Memorise the few passwords that no manager can hold.
Your device password, your disk encryption password, your email password and the master password of the manager must all be in your head.
Let the manager make a new password for one important account.
Start with the account that can reset the others, which is usually your email.
Turn on two-factor authentication.
Use an authenticator app or a hardware key. SMS text messages are the weakest of the three.
Give false answers to security questions.
The true answers are often public. Write the false answers in your password manager, where they become a second password.
Stop using one password in two places.
The same applies to security answers: a leak at one site must not open an account at another.