Password Security
Fact: About 20% of all passwords are easily guessed. Example of bad passwords: password, 12345678, qwerty, your name, your date of birth, etc.
Fact: About 20% of all passwords are easily guessed. Example of bad passwords: password, 12345678, qwerty, your name, your date of birth, etc.
- The best way to prevent someone from getting your passwords, is to have a strong password. To make a strong password, you need to make it at least 8 digits long but if you can make it longer, it’s even better. Just keep in mind though, that a lot of websites will not accept a password that is too long. A strong password will also contain at least 1 capital and one lowercase letter. Also add at least one number in there. And if the website allows you to add a symbol in there too, do it! Taking these steps when creating a password will make it almost impossible to brute force your password. What is brute forcing? Brute forcing is when a hacker runs a program that will try to guess your password by trying every letter/number/symbol combination possible. If you follow this tips, it will literally take a hacker years to brute-force your password.
- Security questions. One of the easiest ways for someone to gain access to your account is by guessing your answers to the security questions. These are the questions that you are asked when you first make an email account. Some examples could be “What was your first dog’s name?” Make sure that the security question that you chose have answers that are NOT easily guessable. A question such as “Where did you meet your spouse?” is a bad one because anyone who browses your Facebook or simply asks you such a question will know the answer. Make sure that you chose a question that NO ONE knows the answer to. Make it something that only you would know the answer to. Have you ever seen that “I forgot my password” link in most log in pages? If they click on these, one of the ways that they can change your passwords is by answering the security questions.
- Try not to use the same password for all of your accounts. Make your email password different from your Facebook password and so on. Otherwise, if someone manages to get their hands on your password, they will have access to ALL of your accounts.
RSS Feed