trs96
Moderator
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2012
- Messages
- 25,512
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro
- CPU
- i5-10500
- Graphics
- RX 570
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
TL;DR
If you're foolish enough to use "123456" "qwerty" or "password" as your password for any site you will likely be hacked and deserve to be hacked. If you are using any of the "top ten" passwords below (post #3) change them immediately. If you're using a password you can easily remember it's probably not secure enough. Use a password manager that securely encrypts the long, complex passwords you set for websites you visit. Making it 10 characters long is ideal.____________________________________________________________________________________________
Transitioning to a new password manager recently. I'm giving Bitwarden a try. I have a lot of saved sign in usernames and passwords for multiple websites. I also try when possible to use a unique username instead of my email address. If you use the same email for all of your sign in usernames, that is also putting you at greater risk.
I decided to look at my old passwords and test them out for security. All of these I put in are complex, a mix of numbers, letters, special characters and capital letters. What I found is that any password of 8 characters or less is really easy to crack these days. Even if it's not a word in the dictionary or your pet's name. The biggest mistake, other than using easy to guess passwords, is creating passwords that are simply too short to be effective.
Here's an example of a complex 6 character password: j%K42n
No one could guess that right ? With a fast computer and the right software.....
A 6 Character password can be cracked in 5 seconds.
8 Character passwords are not much better. Just 8 hours.
You should be OK with a 10 character, complex password.
5 years is a long time to crack one of these. If you change your
passwords at least once a year, nothing to worry about.
If you're using "mypassword"as your password though, it will be
cracked in seconds, not days or years. Some people actually use this.
For really paranoid people, make it 11 characters and you've got nothing at all to worry about.
How Secure Is My Password? | Password Strength Checker
Data breaches and identity theft are on the rise, and the cause is often compromised passwords. After stealing credentials, cybercriminals can use passwords to
www.security.org
If you need a password you can remember then a passphrase is best in that situation.
Here's an example of a randomly generated passphrase. Give one a try. Length makes
a very large difference in how hard it is to crack. Each word should be at least 7 letters.
Take home point, make your important banking, shopping, personal medical info passwords at least 10 or more characters with a mix of letters (capital/lowercase), numbers and special characters.
Last edited: