I am sure all of you know the importance of using a strong password generator.  Numerous experts claim that most of us could benefit from a hacking lesson when passwords are being discussed. Teenagers especially are quite casual with the way they handle their passwords. According to a reputable report, more than 30 percent teenagers tend to tell their password to other friends as a trust sign. Because of the erratic nature of most teenagers, things can go wrong pretty quickly. For information about password managers and password manager reviews click here.

 

Generic Passwords Lead to Trouble

However, before we start assuming that teenagers are the only ones who put themselves in trouble, we should also consider the passwords and pin numbers that we use. More often than not we the adults tend to go with familiar number sequences and important dates that are easy for us to remember. In case there is a default password, we always tend to go with something familiar rather than creating a password that is entirely new. Sure, this shortcut does make things significantly easier for us, but what we forget to remember is that we make things simple for the online hackers as well.

A reputable block in the early 2010s pointed out that surprisingly a high majority of four digit password combinations are 1111 and 1234. 2850 is another choice that quite a lot of people prefer. If your passcode is this simple, unlocking and hacking it can be done within a matter of minutes or even seconds. Despite that people continue to choose these kinds of combinations. If you happen to be among the same people, I would strongly advise you to be slightly more creative with your passwords.

 

Hackers are More Sophisticated Than Ever

According to a report in CNN, hackers have a common way of finding out your password. Most of us think that they use complicated codes or fancy softwares to get through. In reality however, things are completely different. In most cases, the hackers find out passwords just through guesses. A lot of people try to be witty by choosing the word “password” as their password. Sure it might make some impressionable people giggle, but in truth it is an easy prey for a hacker. Astoundingly, a high number of people have been found to have “password1” as their password. Sure there is the combination of 9 characters, numeral, and upper case letter, but sometimes that is not unique and complex enough.

Encrypted passwords that utilize substitutions like the alphabet o for the number zero could seem airtight initially; however, you may find it surprising that they too are very common these days. Also, despite their seeming complexity, these remembering these types of passwords can get really tricky. However, cracking them is very simple, and sometimes it just takes a few seconds.

 

Safe Passwords

You will be astonished to discover that when creating a password, the passwords that are the safest are the ones that use a combination of numerous simple words which are easy to recall, yet are combined in a unique manner. Some websites even provide an efficient random password generator that assist you with coming up with words for your password sequences.

Numerous online experts who have worked alongside online protection systems have claimed that going with multiword passwords is the best bet to keep your password secure. One of them even stated that a password that sounds as simple as this is entertaining is ten times more secure in comparison to the passwords that sound completely nonsensical.

Adam Dachis of Lifehacker once reported that a very common way of cracking passwords is brute force attacks. In case you do not know what these attacks are, they are essentially repetitive attacks that eventually overpower the security system of your computed. The attacks require repetition in order to succeed; Hackers use particular software for these attacks and enter a variety of English characters in combinations. In many cases, the hackers make more than fifty attempts each minute.  Through this method, the hackers crack common passwords within a few hours. Complex passwords however, require some time to decode. Decoding these complex passwords could take some months to even a year. Passwords that are most secure last for ages without being compromised and falling into the wrong hands.

Although multiword passwords seemingly appear like they are the best option when it comes to security, the Safety and Security center of Microsoft has given four more elements to keep in mind when you are looking to create a foolproof password:

Variety

Make sure that you use different passwords for different accounts. Most cybercriminals rely on websites that are less secure in order to crack passwords. Once they discover one password, they try it on other accounts as well and more often than not people choose the same password for them as well, for example, personal banking sites, social media, personal email address etc.

Variation

Always make sure that you change your password constantly for maximum security

Complexity

Integrate numbers, symbols, punctuation, and other characters that are not as common in the password. Also remember that password hacking tools and software check letter to symbol substitutes that are quite common.

Length

Eight or more characters are the ideal length of a strong password.

 

As mentioned earlier, there are numerous online resources that let user test the strength of their passwords along with their safety. There are a variety of specialized online lessons for teachers and students that provide thorough knowledge regarding online privacy, security, and specially, secure password selection. There are lessons for people as young as fourth and fifth graders. These lessons instill in children from a young age the importance of protecting private information.

 

Bottom Line

Making a secure password is not that big of a deal. All you have to do is gain some knowledge about online privacy and you will be good to go. Never go overboard when creating passwords as it only leads to one of two things, you will either forget the password, or it might get hacked by an experienced hacker. Keep it simple yet complicated enough that only you can remember it