With so much of our lives happening in a digital environment, building up an impressive array of passwords is inevitable. Passwords provide only a single factor of authentication, and password cracking tools have been developed that can easily decode simple passwords that have been encrypted. As an example of why it is so important to create strong passwords, let’s take a simple eight letter password: password. Please note, we do NOT ever recommend using this as a password!
This would take a matter of seconds for a cracker to break using an automated tool. Adding upper case letters improves it, but PassworD would still take only minutes to break.
Pa55worD improves security again, this might take several hours to crack.
More complex passwords are highly recommended. These are constructed of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
So if we use *&Pa5Sw0rD*%, a criminal would have to wait a month for his program to decode it. This is why information security specialists recommend changing password every 25 days, as a strong password like this, even having been grabbed remotely from an infected PC, would still take longer to break.
The advice that we recommend is:
- Create a password that is constructed of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols
- Consider using a password generator
- Don’t use the same password twice
- Consider using a password manager
- Do not write passwords down
- Don’t use passwords with details such as family members’ or pets’ names, or your own or family birthdays.
We recommend looking at Get Safe Online for further guidance on what constitutes a good password.