Creating A Strong Password & Avoiding Weak Ones
Just like a metal vault is the only thing protecting a banks on site financial reserves, the only thing between you and cyber criminals on the internet is a strong password. You want a drawbridge, moat and a preferably few dozen hungry crocodiles to keep your site safe. But all too often people choose weak passwords because they are easy for them to remember. The problem with this is, they are also easy for someone with malicious intent to guess or crack with password programs.
What is a weak password? In the Mel Brooks Film “Spaceballs”, President Skroob had the combination of his luggage as 1,2,3,4 and they joked that only an idiot would use such. This qualifies as a bad example as even a chimpanzee could crack this combination.
Have a strong password and change passwords regularly
A strong password is long, not predictable, and has numbers and symbols included in it.
How do I create a strong password?
Have it be at least 8 characters in length or longer
Use a combination of upper and lower case letter
Use numbers and punctuation marks
Use one or more of special characters:
! @ # $ % * ( ) – + = , < > : : “ ‘ .
Try to think of something you can remember but would be impossible for a hacker to guess.
Hackers can find information about you especially in the era of social media where people voluntarily openly share information about themselves like on Facebook.
Avoiding Weak Passwords
DO NOT use any personal information in your password: Name, address, phone number, birth date, social security number, names of friends, relatives or pets. Including any of these constitutes a weak password. Just like the 3 little pigs, the hacker wolves will blow your house down if it isn’t made of brick.
You do not want your personal and financial information getting into the wrong hands!!
Using Password Management Software
This is software that helps generate strong passwords. By using this, you would simply need to remember the password for this software. A word of caution however: Avoid accessing password management software on public networks as your data can still be captured at any time. Having your passwords written down in a secure location is another way of maintaining “real world” distance between you and cyber criminals. They’d have to break into your home or apartment and find the password written down then later hack you online. You can see how this is highly unlikely since this is too much work and too risky. Hackers would get caught more easily if they did so which is why they prefer trying to crack passwords from the distance the internet provides.
Remember, when it comes to passwords for your email and website, lock the gate and throw away the key. Then don’t forget to repeat these steps by changing the lock periodically, in case a hacker finds one of your former keys.
The 2by2host Team