Research by NordPass reveals that senior citizens believe in a lot of cybersecurity myths that could jeopardize their online security.

Security experts debunk the 5 most common cybersecurity myths and explain why believing in them is dangerous.

Reusing passwords is not that bad

According to the research, 38% of senior citizens feel safe enough not to be hacked even though they reuse passwords. However, reusing passwords is bad. The main and most obvious reason why reusing passwords is not secure is that it creates a single point of failure. “This means that using the same password for a number of your online accounts puts them all at risk. A hacker only needs one password to compromise a large number of your accounts without a lot of hassle,” says Chad Hammond, security expert at NordPass.

Nobody cares about my data

It’s tempting to think that your data is not interesting to any devious third parties. While it’s true that hackers rarely target any specific person, it is essential to understand that they are looking for any data they could monetize. That could be your Social Security number, email address, physical address, passwords, date of birth, or full name. All such information could prove valuable to a cybercrook.

Sharing passwords over email is secure

Sending passwords via email is a common practice, but the potential of revealing them to unwanted parties is quite high. There are many reasons emailing passwords can be dangerous:

• emails are sent in plain text, meaning they are not protected in any way
• emails are often stored on the computer in plain text or other unencrypted formats
• many copies of an email could still exist in many places, even once it’s deleted

For these reasons, hackers don’t have to do all that much to get hold of a password sent over email.

Writing down passwords on sticky notes is secure

Writing down a password on a sticky note might seem like a reasonable way to store and remember your passwords. However, this is a common misconception, and doing so could be risky. Consider the fact that misspelling a password on a sticky note is a real possibility which leads to the dreadful and endless password reset loop. “In addition to that, paper is perishable, could be simply lost, or placed somewhere where other people could have a clear view of it,” says Chad Hammond, security expert at NordPass.

I don’t need to regularly change my passwords

Only 34% of senior citizens update their passwords regularly. However, most experts recommend changing passwords every 90 days. Regular password changes guarantee that no one can acquire your password and use it to snoop on your online accounts over an extended period of time. “If any of your passwords are ever leaked in a data breach, they will more than likely appear in a database on the dark web. Hackers love those databases,” says Chad Hammond, security expert at NordPass.