PEPA urges customers to strengthen passwords during Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Pontotoc Electric Power Association is encouraging customers to rethink their passwords this October, pointing to longer passphrases and an extra sign-in safeguard as practical ways to protect online accounts.

The utility shared the reminder Oct. 8 as part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Its graphic recommends choosing a different passphrase for each account and enabling multifactor authentication wherever it is available.

PEPA's reminder suggests combining four or five unrelated words into a memorable passphrase instead of relying on a short password with a few symbols or capital letters.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology offers similar guidance in its consumer password guide: when people must create their own password, they should make it at least 15 characters long. A multiword passphrase is one way to reach that length.

NIST also warns that length alone cannot stop a phishing attack. A fake sign-in page can steal a password when someone enters it, regardless of how complicated that password is.

Using a unique password for each account helps prevent a stolen credential from opening other accounts. NIST recommends password managers to generate and securely store long, unique passwords, along with multifactor authentication, which adds another verification step.

For Pontotoc customers taking up PEPA's October reminder, the practical checklist is straightforward: avoid reusing passwords, favor length when creating one and turn on the additional sign-in protection offered by each service.

Photo: Pontotoc News original illustration

Sources: PEPA's original account-security reminder; NIST's consumer guide to stronger account security