Overview: Password Hygiene

Quick Definition

Password Hygiene refers to the degree to which a user's passwords are selected and managed according to secure best practices. The practices important for good password hygiene include, but are not limited to, selecting passwords that are not obvious, perfunctory, or common, selecting a unique password for each account, avoiding the temptation to write passwords for easy recall, and avoiding the temptation to share passwords with others for convenience.

Bad password hygiene is responsible for countless data breaches and individual account takeovers, and security administrators routinely invest time and effort to educate users about bad password hygiene and its consequences.