Every internet user would have gone through the password strength test to test the strength of any random password. The test tells the users how strong their passwords are to keep their accounts and the related information safe. Almost all the websites in internet use these password strength tests at the time creation of accounts. Even though these tests are reliable, users make a few common mistakes, which pave an easy for hackers to crack into the accounts. A recent study on passwords reveals that a majority of the passwords really does suck and does not help in stopping the hackers.
Why Passwords Suck?
There are a few software – supported computers, which can process hundreds of the entire Wikipedia site in just a few minutes. Hackers mostly use such kind of computers to crack into the accounts. For them, it is not a big deal to crack an encrypted random password. Even a password that passes a password strength test cannot stand against such hackers. A journalist named Steve Regan recently was able to crack more than 80 thousand passwords for a study recently. The tools he used were a computer worth $300 and simple software, which one can download free of cost. Thus, it is clear that most of the passwords are not set well to remain as a good security tool.
Common Mistakes
People make a few common mistakes, which make it easy for the hackers to crack into an account. Even though people set a random password mixing numbers and texts, they follow a few common patterns. It is easier to remember the common patterns, but it is not advisable to such passwords. The passwords that have some common patterns become a gateway for the hackers. The common patterns include mixing the name and date of birth in an order, following the order of letters on a keyboard and names that are shorter in length. One should not forget a fact that hackers are always smarter and have many tricks and ideas to breach into the accounts. Hence, it is advisable not to use any such common patterns, which may not only allow hackers to breach into an account, but also to breach into the lives of people eventually.
Do Password Managers Work?
A few people rely upon the password manager software to make their passwords more secured and safer. However, the fact is that, many of the password management software do not work efficiently. Most of the password manager tools convert the names into numbers based on a set of codes. Such encoded passwords in the form of numbers can easily be converted or decoded back into the names within a minute using some easily available hacking tools.
How to Have a Great Password?
‘Make it Long’ is what the experts say. Even though hackers crack a random password easily, it becomes tough for them if one adds just one letter additionally. For instance, it is easy to crack a password named ‘Jonathan1990’. However, cracking becomes difficult if we modify it like ‘Jonaaaathan1990’. The size or the number of password characters matter a lot, as even one letter can change the cracking ideology of a hacker. Experts, nowadays, advise people to have a random password of at least 12 to 14 characters, even though eight is the sufficient limit in many websites.