In today’s world there isn’t a week that goes by when we don’t hear how someone has had their system, email, and/or account hacked.

Surprisingly (or not), many of these could have been avoided with better password habits.

Here are the top 5 tips you should follow to help keep your data secure.

1.  Use multiple passwords

Nearly everyone I know breaks this rule (including me, to some degree) – Don’t use the same password for all your logins. If one account gets hacked, then all your others are at risk as well. Change things up a bit and if you must stick with a few – add a bit of differentiation such as “favoritepassword-F” for Facebook, “favoritepassword-T” for Twitter, etc.

2. Use phrases rather than single words

Using easy to remember phrases such as “Chicken$oupi$yummy!” is going to be a lot harder to break than “blackbear”. Most passwords are stronger when they are at least 10-12 characters and use a mix of letters, capitalization, numbers, and symbols.

3. Utilize two-factor authentication

Most companies, especially financial institutions/sites have instituted two-factor authentication to keep your data secure. This is when you will login as usual, and then you’ll either use your fingerprint for authorization (available on most cell phones) or they’ll send you a text/email message with a code to input before you’re allowed access to the site or application. This is the focus of this year’s World Password Day

4. Use a password manager

Creating unique passwords for different logins is best, however no one is expected to remember all of them. Some people use a little notebook (heaven help you if it gets lost!), or a password manager like LastPass or Robo Form. These apps are available to sync up with all your devices so you can access your data from anywhere, securely.

Many browsers will save password data for you, however if anyone else uses your computer (or hacks into it), they will have access to your passwords as well so it’s best to keep those stored elsewhere.

5. Differentiate

If you insist on using the same few passwords, please take care not to use the same passwords you use for your social and email sites as you do for your financial/banking sites.