Do you remember when you last changed your passwords? Are you one of the many who still use the same password for different services for years?
Within this framework, the “European Data Protection Day”, on January 28th, 2007, and the national “Change Your Password”-Day, on February 1st, 2012, were proclaimed with the aim of raising awareness of the citizens of the importance of a secure and responsible handling of their data and to emphasize the importance of password security. This is of particular importance in today’s data protection world.
European data protection day
The data protection day is intended to inform the public which of their personal data is collected by whom, when, for what purpose and what rights they have in relation to the processing of this data. In addition to governments and their authorities, other social actors such as companies or associations are encouraged to raise awareness of data protection issues through campaigns and events on this day.
The Data Act (DA) is currently in the legislative process and will be transposed into EU law with direct effect in all Member States. Together with the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act is the cornerstone of the EU Commission’s data strategy, which aims to “put the EU at the forefront of a data-driven society”. A single market for data will enable cross-sectoral and EU-wide data exchange for the benefit of businesses, researchers and public administrations. The data strategy is part of the digital strategy of the EU Commission, for which further legal bases such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) or the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) are being created.
“Change-your-password”-Day
In general, you should never simply assume that other people will comply with data protection. You can take steps to better protect your data in the Cloud, media library, PC, smartphone and more. The “change-your-password”-day aims to encourage users to change all their passwords to increase the security of their data. However, a new password alone is not enough; it must also be safe. If you already have strong passwords, it is not absolutely necessary to change them.
The “Advisory Council for Digital Consumer Protection”, which advises the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) as an independent body in the performance of its tasks in digital consumer protection, now unequivocally recommends less complex passwords. Because there is no longer a risk that users will generate a complex password, but use it everywhere for convenience.
The motto of the new BSI recommendations is therefore: Opt for less complexity, but make each one unique.
This means that users should definitely choose different passwords for each online service. This is easier to achieve, if the chosen passwords are not too complex and complicated. The BSI considers requirements for passwords with long, often meaningless character strings to be counterproductive.
It is easy to determine whether a password is easy or difficult to crack. Various online services offer such services and also useful tips on what makes a good password – a good way to get an idea of secure passwords.
And… have you already changed your password?
Sources:
https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/schieb-passwoerter-sicherheit-testen-100.html
https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/hintergrund-aktuell/284583/europaeischer-datenschutztag/
