{"id":44392,"date":"2015-07-13T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=44392"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:57:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:57:58","slug":"dont-rely-on-the-password-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Rely on the Password Reset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on your previous vacations. Now, imagine you have a keychain full of these keys that all look the same, but each only opens a specific door.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds kind of like your list of passwords, right? But what happens when you have all of these keys, and you need to get into your house? In either situation it can be easy to forget which key, or password, goes to what door or website.<\/p>\n<p>So, back to the locked door situation, what do you do? A friend wouldn\u2019t have a key that opens your house, and breaking down the door isn\u2019t a good option for obvious reasons. Would you rely on a locksmith to come change the locks every time you forget your key? That would get old very quick.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s essentially the same thing when it comes to your passwords. It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re having to call a locksmith every time you want to get into your house because every time you leave, the lock changes. If you wouldn\u2019t rely on a locksmith every time you want to open your house, why rely on the password reset? Step up your password game instead.<\/p>\n<p>If you have loads of accounts and can\u2019t deal with the hassle of creating and remembering long, strong passwords that are different for every account, then you need a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/learn\/password-manager\/\">password manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not only will such a service help you create a killer password, but you\u2019ll get a single \u201cmaster\u201d password that gets into all of your accounts. A password manager will also eliminate having to reset passwords.<\/p>\n<h2>Use these tips to make sure that your passwords are strong and protected:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure your passwords are at least eight characters long and include mix matched numbers, letters and characters that don\u2019t directly spell any words.<\/li>\n<li>Use different passwords for separate accounts, especially for banking and other high-value websites.<\/li>\n<li>Change your passwords frequently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":674,"featured_media":9258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[76,3923,142],"coauthors":[3973],"class_list":["post-44392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy-identity-protection","tag-cybercrime","tag-email-and-web-security","tag-tag-identity-theft"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Rely on the Password Reset | McAfee Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on your previous\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don&#039;t Rely on the Password Reset | McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on your previous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-13T13:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T15:57:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"McAfee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@McAfee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@McAfee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"McAfee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"McAfee\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/47851fdb92fad9456152405839c92efa\"},\"headline\":\"Don&#8217;t Rely on the Password Reset\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-13T13:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-15T15:57:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/GoogleAccountPWDReset.png\",\"keywords\":[\"cybercrime\",\"email and web security\",\"identity theft\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Privacy &amp; Identity Protection\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/\",\"name\":\"Don't Rely on the Password Reset | McAfee Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/dont-rely-on-the-password-reset\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/GoogleAccountPWDReset.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-13T13:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-15T15:57:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Think about your keychain. 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