We all have a lot of passwords to remember, and many of us fall into the "reset and forget" trap. However, to prevent data breaches and hacks for your accounts, it's important to keep an eye on those passwords and know if they are weak, compromised, or being reused. With the average person having 240 accounts, no one has time to manually check all their passwords for vulnerabilities. Fortunately, Dashlane's password integrity assessment tool makes it easy to keep a close eye on your logins and protect your digital identity.
The best way to prevent hacks and ensure that only you have access to your private data is to create complex and unique passwords for each account and immediately change passwords that have been compromised by a security breach or hack Dashlane provides insights and tools to easily improve your password integrity score and secure your accounts.
You want to see how your passwords are performing? View your password integrity assessment or sign up for a Dashlane account so you or your organization can access this tool.
What is password integrity?
Password integrity refers to the password security of a specific user or group of people within an organization. Our password integrity assessment tool uses a unique combination of metrics to determine the password integrity of users who use Dashlane to store passwords. Within the password integrity tool, you'll see which passwords need to be updated immediately and get recommendations to improve your password integrity score right away.
How it works?
If any of your accounts are considered compromised, Dashlane identifies which critical accounts you should secure first. These critical accounts – like those for banking, email and social media – are most likely to be attacked by bad actors and should always be the highest priority. Your password integrity score increases when you update any of your weak, reused or compromised passwords, with the status of passwords protecting your critical accounts having the greatest impact. So you should change them first.
Why it matters?
Your password integrity plays an important role because passwords are often the weakest element in an individual's or company's cybersecurity. Cybercriminals buy and sell exposed personal data and passwords on the dark web. With advances in password cracking software, cybercriminals are able to use your username and password combination on the Internet.
You can also try to hack your other accounts by using combinations of similar passwords. So the next time you say, "I don't use passwords multiple times!" but your passwords are Metallica82, Metallica1982 and Metallica1982!, Remember that software can easily identify these similar passwords. The Dashlane algorithm also identifies similar passwords and prompts you to change them immediately to stay ahead of these potential threats.
- If passwords are similar, they are summarized under the Reused tab in the Password Integrity section of your app.
- If a password is compromised and you use similar passwords for other accounts, they will also be grouped together with the compromised password under the "Vulnerable Passwords" tab in the password integrity window.
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What does my password integrity score measure?
You no longer have to guess how strong your passwords are. Our password integrity scoring algorithm works quietly in the background, but understanding how our algorithm scores your passwords can help you improve your password integrity and prevent future password breaches.
At risk: a compromised password is one that is associated with a service or product that has recently experienced a data breach, so your password (regardless of how strong it is) has become insecure. Passwords compromised in a security breach should be changed immediately and never used again.
Reused: A reused password is one that is identical or similar to a password on another account. Reusing passwords is a bad habit because all your accounts with the reused password become vulnerable if one account is breached. You should always use a password generator to create unique and complex passwords for all your accounts.
Weak: A weak password is one that is easy to guess (in other words, a combination of your name, address, date of birth, sports team, pet name, etc.), or is simple (e.g. 12345 or Password). These passwords are easily cracked with software and often end up on lists of most popular passwords.
Excluded: An excluded password is a password you have told the algorithm to ignore. This could be a password shared with you (that you don't control), or it could be the password for a physical thing (e.g. your phone or your WLAN password), which you have stored in your safe. Once you exclude a password, it will no longer be added to your password integrity score and will remain under the "Excluded" tab until instructed otherwise.
Pro tip: The easiest way to avoid passwords falling into one of these categories is to create unique and complex passwords for each of your accounts using the password generator built into our apps, extension, and website.
What else can I do to improve my online security?
Creating strong, unique passwords and storing them securely provide the necessary barriers that make it difficult for cybercriminals to easily access your logins. However, there are other steps you can take to increase your digital security, and Dashlane makes it easy for you to do so.
- Use a VPN for WLAN protection. Using a VPN can help keep your data protected and private while surfing the web over a public WLAN. Dashlane Premium Dashlane Friends& Family plans come with the Hotspot Shield VPN, which comes with great features and support.
- Enable 2-factor authentication (2FA). Add a layer of security to your online accounts by requiring a unique token or push notification to verify your identity when you log in. Dashlane makes 2FA easy with our Authenticator tool and a standalone app.
- Minimize the risk with dark web monitoring.Monitoring the dark web for exposed logins in real time helps you stop hacks in their tracks. If a password is compromised, you can change it and make it useless before someone has a chance to try it out. Dark web monitoring is available on all paid Dashlane plans.
While these additional security steps won't increase your password integrity score, they will improve your overall cybersecurity, you can consider them bonus points – your future self will thank you for it.
By leveraging the power of your password integrity score, enabling 2FA and keeping an eye on the dark web, you're on the right path to strengthening your accounts and protecting your digital identity.