#CyberAware Month Tip One: The dangers of password reuse

Have you ever used the same password for your work PC as your home banking account or private email? Do you sometimes open email attachments before checking that the message is from someone you know and trust? Maybe you need to be #CyberAware!

And October is the right time to do it. It's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, when government and industry work together to help residents, businesses, government and schools improve their cyber security preparedness. Preventing cybercrime is truly a shared responsibility.

There are dozens of steps we can take to protect ourselves and our information online, from locking the computer when we leave our work area and never leaving a written password near it, to safeguarding laptops and smartphones when in public places. The State Auditor's Office cares about helping state and local governments protect themselves from cyber attacks, and we'll be posting cyber-security tips and highlighting potentially harmful behaviors all month.

Tip 1: The dangers of “password reuse” (using the same password for multiple accounts) Hackers love people who use the same password repeatedly. Steal or guess the right one once, and they can get access to your bank account, social media account and work information. Best practice is to use a different password for each of your most sensitive accounts to prevent unauthorized use.