Thread by @mrisher

Raise your virtual hand if you’ve had it with passwords ✋. In all honesty, if I could raise three hands, I would – and I’ve got a hunch I’m not alone! Follow along as I dig into the state of passwords and a few ways to make them less of a headache. 1/

First, let’s get a few facts straight when it comes to #passwords. I’m busting the top 3 password myths to help you stay safe online. 2/

Myth #1: Never write down your password.

This is legacy advice from when computers lived at the office & the threat was Pat in the cube next door. But with personal devices & remote hackers, memorized passwords leads to re-use, which is way worse for overall security. 3/

(That said, if you do write down your passwords on paper, a private spot is best. Better yet, read on for more about the free Password Manager built right into your Google Account, q.v. passwords.google.com) 4/

Myth #2: Change your password frequently.

Nope, changing frequently encourages people to re-use weak passwords and just add a number to the end of it. "P@$$w0rd2" anyone? If you’re using strong, unique passwords, you really only need to change them if they’re compromised. 5/

Myth #3: Log out when you’re done.

At the public library or cybercafe, definitely sign out. But on your personal device, signing out frequently means signing *in* frequently, which makes typing your password commonplace and makes you easier to get phished.
Less is more! 6/

Why am I doubling down on passwords today? October is #NationalCyberSecAwarenessMonth (#NCSAM), so we’re doing our best to help keep everyone safe online. And what’s more common online than a password? 🔐 7/

While @google risk-based authentication means passwords are almost never enough to log in to Google, on many other sites passwords are still the first and last line of defense. Passwords are ubiquitous, but let’s face it, we hate them. 8/

We teamed up with Harris Poll to get a sense of how people manage their passwords. The results are alarming, but not all that surprising: 59% of U.S. adults incorporate a name or birthday. (Hint: lots of places know your birthday 😜)

bit.ly/pwcheckup

And 24% have used one of the following common passwords: abc123, Password, 123456, Iloveyou, 111111, Qwerty, Admin, Welcome

I get it: Lots of the apps/sites that we don’t actually care about still require us to create a password, so we make up something simple. 10/

As terrible as they are, passwords are part of our reality (at least for now) and 75% of respondents say they still get frustrated trying to keep track of their passwords. 11/

To help ease some of that frustration, today we announced that #PasswordCheckup will be integrated directly into Google’s Password Manager. blog.google/technology/saf… 12/

How does this help you stay safe online? #PasswordCheckup will automatically check all your saved passwords for security issues and display them in 3 categories for you to act on: compromised 😱, reused 😳 or weak 😣. 13/

From there, you can easily update at-risk credentials, which automatically updates auto-fill for Android and @GoogleChrome. The result is something both more convenient *and* safer ⁨💪. (Later this year, the checking will also be built into Chrome) 14/

You can now check the state of your passwords from the Password Checkup; just follow the instructions in our how-to video. If you hit any road bumps along the way, please let us know! 15/

Net-net: we’re doing our best to eliminate them, but passwords are still a fact of life across the internet. Get set up with #PasswordCheckup and let us help you stay safe online. #CyberAware passwords.google.com

And please, no more of these: P@s$w0rDz 16/16