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When in doubt, always contact the person who sent you the email to confirm it's legitimate, even if it looks harmless (such as an e-card or funny picture) at first sight.
Don't open any email attachments from people you don't know, or suspicious-looking attachments even from people you know. Viruses can damage your computer and collect your private data, regardless of whether or not you are using Skype. If another website or service where you use the same or a similar password is compromised, change your Skype password as soon as possible to protect your account. It's common practice for attackers to verify stolen accounts from other websites against high-value accounts like Skype, mail providers and social networks to see if they can get access.Įven if you have a strong password, you should change it regularly.Īnd if you ever suspect your password has been compromised, you should change it immediately. So use a password that is unique to each website you use to prevent any compromise of those other sites from affecting your Skype account. Whilst we at Skype care passionately about and invest heavily in your security, not all sites do. Many of us have a large number of websites and accounts that we need to remember our username and password for, but not all sites are created equal. Try looking outside and describing something you see ("The River Flowing!" or "A Yellow car"), and then apply our recommendations: For example, the name of your dog or your favorite movie are things that others might know – especially since, with the advent of social networking, a lot of personal information is available about you. Your password is something that only you should know and not something that someone else could easily find out. Include numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters in your passwords, so instead of "theanswerismars" try "Th3Answer1sM4rs*" Passwords are limited to 50 characters, but you can use a short sentence to create a password that’s difficult to crack. It can be difficult to create a strong password and remember it easily. Choose a password you can remember so that you don’t have to write it down. The longer the password is, the stronger it usually is – but the harder it is to recall.
Avoid names, birthdays and dictionary words, as these are easy to guess and hack.
Including in your password punctuation, symbols and other non-standard characters helps to increase the strength of your password. Use a mixture of letters, numbers and characters – like the characters above the numbers on many keyboards such as %, *,$, £ and !.Hackers use lists of common passwords to access accounts (not only on Skype but across all websites), so it’s critical that you use a strong, unique password. It’s important that you choose a secure password to access your Skype account.