Cracking A Password is Easier Than You Think.
If you are picturing a human being sitting at a computer and randomly selecting keyboard combinations, think bigger and image a computer program that will auto-generate different password combinations instead. These programs create variations from a dictionary of known common passwords or even attempt every possible combination using a method called a brute force attack. For a $1000, one person can become a professional hacker and purchase a machine that is capable of testing billions of passwords per second.
If you password is hacked, the impact will depend on what the password accesses. For example, if it is your Facebook or mail is hacked, you may just have all your friends when you went to Europe and how you lost your wallet? If your bank passwords or credit card passwords are hacked, you may have more difficult problems like identify theft. So, in order to avoid this heartache. Let’s take a look at some easy ways to make good passwords.
What Makes A Good Password?
Let’s start simple, Don’t use 12345, God, Password, your name, family or friend’s name, or birth dates.
Now, that we have that out of the way, let’s work on a password that you can remember, but that also one that will not be easy for hackers to break. Basically, the longer and more complicated and rand the password, the harder it is to break. A 13-digit password that mixes alphanumeric characters and punctuation systems is considered impractical to break with today’s technology.
Try Using a phrase and incorporate shortcut codes or acronyms such as:
Between A Rock & A Hard Place becomes B2n-Rk-Hrd+PL!
Laissez les bons temps rouler become LaZ-A-BaH+Ta-Ru8
Play with your keyboard, make images, pictures with the letters and symbols:
!q@w#–3w2Q1
Play with the symbols
I love you, See You later? become iluvu-:),cultr?
Now that you know the rules for passwords, make sure that you update all of your passwords to something that you can not only remember, but as that will be strong enough to fight off the hackers. If you have any questions about passwords or security, call Planetguide at 504-888-5384.
