Creating a strong password and a more secure account

Ring takes security very seriously. That’s why we have a variety of safeguards in place to protect your data. One of the most important safeguards is a strong password (that cannot be easily guessed). This article will detail the steps Ring is taking to increase your password’s security and offer you some tips on the best way to create a more secure password.

Important: Do not share your Ring account password with anyone. No Ring employee, agent or community manager will ever ask you for your password.

New password requirements

A strong password is the best way of keeping your personal information safe, your videos private, and preventing access into your Ring account by unauthorised persons. 

With that in mind, Ring has placed the following requirements on the password you choose for your Ring account: 

• The password needs to have at least eight characters.
• The password needs to include both uppercase and lowercase letters.
• The password needs to include at least one number.
• The password needs to include at least one symbol (Ex. !@#$%^&*<>-)
• The password cannot be an easily guessed password such as 123456, password, or qwertyuiop.
• The password cannot include your first name, last name, or email username.
• The password cannot be the same as your most current/most recent password. 

Strong passwords are difficult for someone to guess. That’s why we’re eliminating the ability to use commonly-guessed passwords. You might not realise that you have a common password and that your account security is at risk.   

Creating good passwords

The key to making a password secure is to make it as long and memorable as possible without, making it so long that you can’t remember it while still fulfilling all seven password criteria. 

Here are some examples of suitable passwords as well as a few that fall short of Ring requirements:

• Suitable: SuMeria33!! - contains at least eight characters.
• Unsuitable: 3Gypt!! - contains less than eight characters.
• Suitable: BUng33C0rd$$ - contains both upper and lowercase letters.
• Unsuitable: lariat$09237 - contains no upper case letters.
• Suitable: Prem1UmGa$$ - contains at least one number.
• Unsuitable: $treeT%%Smarts - contains no numbers.
• Suitable: 1<3BBQC!hickEN - contains at least one symbol.
• Unsuitable: BBQChiCKen6 - contains no symbols.
• Suitable: CAff!3n8t^d - not an easily guessed word.
• Unsuitable: QW3rtyui0p!! - easily guessed word.
• Suitable: F0untA!nFrog8$ - contains no names or dates.
• Unsuitable: AdAm070476! - contains the user’s name plus a birth date.

What not to do

The most important things to avoid are using any personally identifiable information in your password such as your first or last name, family names, birthdays, addresses, your social security number or anything else that can be readily traced back to you by a bad actor.

In addition, avoid using any commonly used passwords such as 123456, password, or qwerty. If you find it easy to remember, it will be easy for a hacker to figure out. 

Storing your passwords

Ideally, you should have a different password for each of your accounts. You can keep track of these passwords until you have them all memorised by writing them down on a piece of paper. Be sure you don’t store the paper near the computer or in a readily accessible place though. Those passwords are incredibly valuable information and need to be taken care of like cash or jewelry. You can also purchase password storage books, similar to personal address books, where you can keep track of different website names and passwords. 

The second thing you can do is use a password management tool. These are computer programs that keep all of your passwords in an encrypted data file that can’t be accessed by hackers. One important thing to remember about password management tools though, it that they’re accessed through a password. Using one though, means you’ll only have to remember one password. 

Do not store your passwords in cloud based storage programs. Those accounts do not provide secure storage.   

Be prepared if someone gets your password

No password is completely secure. If you do suspect your password has been stolen or an account hacked, the first thing to do is change your passwords! 

If you do need to change your password for your Ring.com account, it’s a very simple process. Just follow the below instructions: 

Change your password on the Ring website

• Login to your Ring account.
• On the top right of the page, click

  Account

  .
• On the Account page*,* click

  Manage Account

  .
• On the Manage Account page*,* click the

  Change

  under

  Password.

Change your password in the Ring app

• Open the Ring app.
• Tap the three-lined icon on the top left
• Tap

  Account

  .
• Tap

  Change Password

  .
• Enter your current password.
• Enter your new password.
• Confirm your new password. 

Creating a strong password doesn’t have to be difficult and goes a long way toward keeping your online accounts secure.