Password Security

A good password consists of 14 or more random characters, upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.

Of course, having such random strings and a different set for every account will make it difficult to remember. A few things you can do —

• Use a strong password storage program that uses encryption to protect its data. The most commonly used program is Roboform. For the Mac and PC, you can check out PasswordVault by Lava Software. Some programs, including this one, generate passwords.
• For low-security sites where it doesn’t matter if the info is discovered, have a simple user name and password that you only use on these sites. What you DON”T want to do, is write your passwords down.
• If you use a word in the English language as a password, even if you double it (such as “friendfriend”), spell it backwards (“dneirf”) or add some numbers at the end (“friend481”), a powerful computer using brute force can discover it in a few hours.
• If you use a non-word password with only five jumbled characters, all lower case, it takes a mere 11.9 seconds to crack it. Even if you use a mixture of all characters, upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, etc., it takes only 2.15 hours — still easily achievable for a hacker to run overnight.

Hacking programs, in the guise of genuine password recovery software, are freely available on the Internet. Installed on someone’s PC, either directly or over the Internet through malware, they can unscramble pretty much all passwords used in email and instant messaging programs, those stored in Internet browsers or otherwise disguised by asterisks.

What these things tell us is, first, that our passwords should not only be made up of random characters, but should also be lengthy — 16 characters is recommended.

Second, not only should be protect our computers against malware attacks, but that we should change our passwords frequently, in case anyone has managed to grab them.

It is also good practice to use a different password for each important account. Why? Certain websites and online forums are easy to hack. If you’re registered there and you’re using the same user name and password as you do for your online banking….someone’s got their hands on your money.

The bottom line is that no password is 100% safe and uncrackable, even if it is encrypted, but tough strings of characters and encryption (provided by some software) will usually be enough to defeat and deter the hackers.