Passcode, passwords and face/touch Id Tips

Setting up the front lines of security on your iPhone is a very simple and effective process to keeping your personal information, social media, and finances safe on your phone. It seems like a no brainer but what stops most people from doing this is the annoyance of consistently having to enter in passcodes, passwords, and other login information. Luckily there are tools built into your iPhone that makes it easy and I’ve provided some tips for password creation and management below.

Also Nord Pass is a great password manager for any device. Nord pass helps you generate passwords, they keep your passwords safe with extremely strong encryption and they’ll let you know if any passwords are at risk to be compromised.

Face ID & Passcodes

First things first, at the very least you want to set up a passcode on your iPhone. You can make it either 4 digits or 6 digits that consists of all numbers but if you want an additional layer of security you can also set up an alphanumeric passcode (letters and numbers) which will be much more secure. Then you want to set up Face ID on iPhones that are compatible with Face ID or Touch ID on iPhones that don’t have the Face ID feature. Setting these features up will save you the hassle of constantly typing in your password or passcode. You can even make purchases with Face/Touch ID set up and connect your biometrics to login information on apps on your iPhone. To set up these features, see the links above.

Passwords

Length & Complexity

It is so important to have strong passwords in this day and age. The tools that hackers use to crack passwords has gotten more sophisticated over the years to where an 8 character password is no longer as secure as it use to be. That is still the minimum requirement for some apps but ideally for maximum security you want to make it longer. When it comes to passwords the most important thing to remember is that length is more important than complexity but both should be used. You could have a complex 8 character password but a password with 16-20 characters that is less complicated will still be more secure. However, using passwords that contain both length and complexity will be more secure than either on their own. I would say the minimum length that you should make your passwords is 12 characters. Ideally you should use 16-20 but 12 is the minimum.

You could also use your judgment as to what passwords you make longer and more complex and which ones you make less complicated and shorter. For example, if you are creating a password for your banking app then you would want the password to be long and complex. If you are creating a password for your Dominos app on the other hand then you don’t necessarily need a super long and complex password. What’s the worst that’s going to happen if someone hacks your pizza app? They may order a pizza and use all your reward points but it’s not going to drain your bank account.

Don’t Use Obvious Words Or Numbers

When creating passwords you don’t want to use any personally identifiable information. That means stay away from:

• Your name, family and friends names
• Birth dates, anniversaries, other notable events
• Street addresses
• Phone numbers
• Social security numbers
• Credit & debit card numbers
• Pets names
• Your favorite sports teams

This list could go on for miles but you get the point. You don’t want to choose passwords that people can easily guess because it might not even be a hacker that messes with your accounts it could be an ex that knows your passwords are just your cats name and your birthdate.

How Should I Create A Password Then?

First off, you want to use a combination of capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. If you don’t know exactly what you should put a great way to start is create a password scheme. To do this think of a phrase in your head and use one letter from each word. For example:

• “Yesterday I Ate Cheese In A Sandwich With Potatoes And It Was Delicious”
• Then take one letter from each word. We’ll just do the first letter to make things simple.
• “Yesterday I Ate Cheese In A Sandwich With Potatoes And It Was Delicious”
• YIACIASWPAIWD
• Then make some letters uppercase and some lowercase and sprinkle in some numbers and special characters
• Yia8CIa3#sWPAi7wD
• And boom you have a lengthy and complex password.

And now I know you’re thinking “How am I suppose to remember that?” the answer is you don’t have to but it needs to be accessible.

Where Should I Keep My Passwords?

Ideally you want to write your passwords down in a book that’s kept in a safe place or you could also use a password manager or a usb drive.

If you want to use a password manager iPhone has one built into the phone and you can access it through your iCloud. And as I said earlier in this article, one of my personal favorites is Nord Pass. Nord pass helps you generate passwords, they keep your passwords safe with extremely strong encryption and they’ll let you know if any passwords are at risk to be compromised. Having said this, if something happens to your phone then the two passwords you really do need to remember or write down somewhere is your Apple ID password and your email password. If you have those two and your phone is backed up to iCloud damage control in any event won’t be a headache.

The cool thing about iPhones password manager and Nord Pass is that you can use your lock screen passcode and your Face/Touch ID to input your login information for apps and other websites so you can have lengthy and complex passwords that you won’t ever have to remember. There are situations where you would need to access your passwords though and that’s why you should write them down. If you’re ever changing your passwords or logging into a new device you will need to know exactly what they are but this happens so rarely that it’s not much of an inconvenience.

Two-Factor Authentication

This is a big one. Set up two factor authentication on everything because even if someone did know your passwords, in order to log in to any account a one-time 6-digit code will be sent to your phone number and/or email in order to access the account. You could also utilize authenticator apps which essentially do the same thing and generate a 6-digit code that expires within seconds. Two-factor authentication makes it much harder for cyber attacks to be successfully carried out by hackers and significantly reduces the risk of fraud.