Artigenda
Dutch National Change Your Password Day
When: annually, November 24.
The Dutch version of International Change Your Password Day is known as “Change Your Password Day.” The day takes place annually on November 24. Do not confuse the day with the international version, which takes place on February 1.
Origin
The Dutch version emerged in 2014, after an initiative by the Dutch tech website Tweakers. You can read more about it in this (automatically) translated post (The original post can be found here). In support, a website was available until March 2023 (Password-aware.co.uk). This website is no longer available. The website is now only available via the Wayback Machine and available in Dutch.
More than just a strong password
A lot has changed since 2014. These days, you don’t just protect an account with a password. It’s about more than just a strong password. Consider two-step authentication. This expects you to do something in addition to entering a password. For example, taking over a code generated from another program. The advantage is that a password alone is not enough to access an account.
Another option is to send an SMS message and copy the code sent into an additional field offered after entering the password.
In some cases, adding that extra layer of security is not possible. The only question is whether you would then be wise to continue using those kinds of accounts. You also have to ask the question of whether you want to use the same password for each account or not.
Remembering passwords is hard
The biggest problem with multiple accounts is that you have to remember the passwords. Remembering passwords is tricky. There are programmes available for that. Then some programmes allow you to collect those accounts. Then you store that data securely in the cloud. These are called password managers. Want to know which password managers are the best options? Then you should read this article by Kinsta that talks about them. This article also tells you exactly how a password manager works.
Further protection
So, today you change the passwords. Only is that all? Further protection includes the sites you visit and the software you use. Are you sure everything that everything is safe? Today is also a good time to think about that.
