Importance of Strong Password
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It seems like almost everyone doesn’t care about having a strong password. Most people think that a (weak) password is going to keep their computer or network safe. Well that is obviously not true, and people know that. But then again they couldn’t care less.
Well one of the most common ways hackers get into computers, servers, etc. is by cracking the password. To be honest, passwords are just really weak. Now you can make it harder for them to crack it. How? It’s pretty simple. Just have a strong password. Don’t keep a simple, easy to remember password like “mypass”. Use the letters, the numbers, and the symbols. Make a strong password like “sTr()|\|gP4s5″. Well it might take sometime for you to remember it, but it’s worth when you have something valuable behind the password-protected walls.
Companies, web developers, etc. believe that passwords are safe from hackers if they don’t publish the source code for their encryption algorithms. But they are wrong! Now I won’t tell you how this can be cracked, so lets move on. There are programs that try to guess a password by trying all the possible password combinations. Sure it will take some time, but maybe it will get cracked, eventually.
And a good, experienced hacker can even get the password from you. I think they call it “social engineering”. Well social engineering is basically getting you to trust someone and give out valuable information (like passwords) which can (and most likely will) be used maliciously. Now don’t give out your password to someone who calls you and says that he or she is in the technical department of your company and needs your password to test some security stuff. Confirm that the inquiry is real. Plus a good, experienced hacker can look at your login screen while you are entering your password and he or she can pretty much guess the password. And a hacker might also watch whether you are looking around (at objects) for a reminder of the password or the password itself.
So, my only advice would be to create a strong password combined with letters, numbers and symbols. And make it long! Plus make sure that you don’t use the same password everywhere, because once one of your passwords has been cracked, the hacker might try it on other accounts of yours. By the way, did you know that almost 3 trillion eight-digit password combinations using the letters and the numbers (0 to 9).
Useful Links:
- Strong passwords: How to create them and use them - This article tells you how to create strong passwords. I highly recommend that you read this.
- Password Strength Checker - Just a tool from Microsoft that checks if your password is strong or not
- Keeping Safe with Strong Passwords - This article basically tells you everything from how passwords are stolen to how to create a strong one.
