To protect your online accounts it is important to have single use secure passwords. Passwords that consist of a dictionary word and number can easily be hacked by computers in a number of seconds. If you use the same password across multiple sites then it only needs to be hacked from one site and all your other accounts become vulnerable. A lot of hacking is automated so that it doesn’t matter if you think that nobody would target you as hackers will target any account that could be vulnerable to hacking.
There are a number of ways that hackers may want to access your accounts. For example access to bank accounts may allow them to transfer money away from your account. This however is unlikely because banks usually insist on sending sms codes for new transactions and other security measures that other accounts may not. If hackers gain access to a facebook account or email they can use it to send spam or phishing links to your friend that then may lead to their accounts becoming compromised.
If your accounts get hacked passwords may get changed and it may become difficult to regain access to your accounts. You may lose photos, messages and other important information.
Fortunately there is an easy way to help secure your accounts with strong passwords without the need for remembering hundreds of passwords. This can be achieved by using a password manager. There are numerous password managers available with many having free options.
Previously I have used LastPass that has a free option however you can no longer sync between a computer and mobile device for free, so I recommend not using this one. Keepass is another free alternative but it doesn’t have a server for syncing across devices and so can be a bit more difficult to set up. I am currently using Bitwarden, it is an open source password manager that has a free option that is sufficient for most people and even includes sharing passwords between 2 people for free. Premium accounts are only $10 USD which is cheaper than most other password managers.
Setting up Bitwarden is simple and just requires creating an account on their website. I recommend creating a strong password using diceware to create a password phrase. This is important to ensure that nobody can access the account. You can then export your current passwords from your browser and import them to Bitwarden to get started straight away.
There are apps avaliable for Android and ios to make syncing passwords accross your devices easy. There are also browser extensions to help with autofilling passwords.