…., you shouldn’t let people see it, change it frequently, and don’t share it with people you don’t know Chris Prillo
So why the interest in passwords….
Dear reader… recently I was a victim of a Facebook hack where multiple Facebook friends were hit with messages purporting from me, looking for money. Fortunately, the unfortunate hacker hit my US friends first and some of them are so tight with their cash, (George Washington blinks in the sunlight whenever they open their wallet), so the attempted fraud sank without a trace. It took a bit of effort to get back into my account but glad no damage was done except to my pride.
However, I thought my Facebook password was secure. I had used the same password for about 8 years but as you can see above it could be cracked within a month.
According to How Secure Is My Password? | Password Strength Checker (security.org), there are a number of steps to improve the security of your password
A password should be 16 characters or more; our password-related research has found that 45 percent of users use passwords of eight characters or less, which are not as secure as longer passwords.
A password should include a combination of letters, numbers, and characters.
A password shouldn’t be shared with any other account.
A password shouldn’t include any of the user’s personal information like their address or phone number. It’s also best not to include any information that can be accessed on social media like kids’ or pets’ names.
A password shouldn’t contain any consecutive letters or numbers.
A password shouldn’t be the word “password” or the same letter or number repeated.
Some advice from the famous webcomic xkcd on creating a memorable password
Another additional step would be to enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
