Having a strong password is getting more important today with the increased of computer crime reported. People usually create a password that is simple and easy to remember rather than a complicated and more difficult to remember one. There is a saying that if you managed to forget a password, then that is a strong password. Hence if you are going to create a strong password, it has to be as complicated as possible.
There are many criteria to consider when defining a strong password. Firstly is the type of characters used in a password. The type of characters here are referring to lower case, upper case, numeric, and special character. A password should combine at least three of the types mentioned and it is highly recommended to combine all of them.
Next is the length of the password where a strong password should not have less than ten characters. According to security researchers, normally user will create a password with the length of six to eight characters and not many will create a password which will exceed ten characters. If someone uses a brute-force attack to get your password, a longer password will increase the time for this technique to success.
Thirdly is a question where your password should represent certain meaning or just any random string. It is not recommended that your password represents certain words or person’s name. These types of passwords are vulnerable to the ‘dictionary attack’. However, it is possible to create a strong password which is not meaningful to others but only to yourself. This can be done in many ways and one of the famous one is to take a long phrase or sentence and use the beginning of each letter as the password.
After achieving all the conditions mentioned above, it might ended that the created password will be forgotten the following day. It could also be that the user uses some password generator and generate some random characters which also have the criteria of a strong password that is easily forgotten as well. When the password is so difficult to remember, it eventually has to store somewhere. Storing as a plain text inside your computer is not so safe now unless the user has a good encryption software to encrypt the password. Thus it is safer now to write it on a piece of paper and seal it somewhere physically safe. With the increasing number of malware infections, it is not so safe to simply store as a soft copy in your computer.
As a conclusion, creating a password is not something we can take lightly and the criteria mentioned above best define a strong password.
Apart from measuring a strong password, you can visit my blog for more tips and tricks on IT security.
By Alan Tay
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Tay
http://EzineArticles.com/?Measuring-a-Strong-Password&id=6368617
Alan Tay is a software engineer who specializes in digital security. He is also the author who runs IT Security Column, a IT Security blog where he mostly writes about computer security tips and how to remove virus.
I never thought that the password – could important to someone besides me. Naive? Thanks for the info.
Katie’s recent post ..debit card/rewards credit cards
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Hi Author
Appreciate for the backlinks to back to my blog there.
Alan Tay’s recent post ..A New Generation of Banking Trojan
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
You’re welcome, Alan. If you ever want to do a Guest Post for WindowsTalk, feel free to contact me anytime.
James’s recent post ..Posted: VIPRE Antivirus Offer for WindowsTalk Readers
Twitter: FinallyFast
says:
The best advice I’ve gotten a password it to take a phrase, make the password the first or last letter of each word, and use characters for the letters you can.
Example: My Sons Birthday Is May 13 Password: m$b!m13
Each software has its own way to measure the strength of password. In general, it is based on the above criteria. Thanks for your nice post.
Mobimas @Your How To’s recent post ..Top Best Paid URL (Link) Shortener Services for your Websites / Blogs
Thanks for posting about this, this is such an important issue with so much spam that’s taking over our inboxes by stealing our passwords.
ella’s recent post ..Simple Animation Software – tips and guidelines
I use Roboform to generate passcards for me especially for anything important such as banks, credit cards, etc. However, you have to remember to copy it someplace until you create a passcard cuz you will NEVER remember these – they are crazy! LOL
sha’s recent post ..Do Some Whiten Their Teeth Too Much?
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
I thought Roboform has a password management tool that help you save all your password into an encrypted storage? If you need a tool to generate password only, i think there are many on the web for instance
http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
Maybe you can explore the Roboform software in details and I’m sure it can help you in remembering those passwords.
Alan Tay’s recent post ..A New Generation of Banking Trojan
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
I use Roboform on all my PCs. It has a Sync feature, so the logins are always available no matter which PC I am using in my home. I just have to remember the master password.
James’s recent post ..Should I Buy an eReader?
I usually use a combination of numbers and letters for my password. I’m confident that its hard for someone to hack on your account if your password is strong. Make a combination of small and capital letters with special characters and numbers for your password, i doubt if someone can get in to your account with that.
Some basic guidelines to be read by beginners of internet.. covered almost everything.
Cheers.
Robin
Robin’s recent post ..How to Bring Back the Old Facebook Chat ?
Hi, Alan,
I recognize the importance of having a strong password, as it can be crucial for fighting off hackers or any computer related crime. I try following the common advice regarding the strength of the password, so I always combine numbers with letters and punctuation to get the best and the most secure result out of it.
I also tend to change the passwords frequently-think I am doing a good job so far.
Thanks for posting your views and ideas on it. Its always good to make sure I am doing the right thing.
Kristina L.’s recent post ..Sheet Music Plus Coupon Code
Password is as important as a key of a lock…so it must be strong enough so no one can steal it…or can hack it..
Sara@WebLoverz’s recent post ..Fast Page Free CSS Template
Selecting a strong password is really important specially if you’re putting a business online or indulging in activities that involves critical information. In my own opinion though, the problem is not with the weak password. It’s the lack of knowledge on stuffs that actually hacks your password like phishing links. This is the most common reason of accounts getting hacked.
It does make sense because there’s no way that a hacker can guess your password because it’s weak or something like that. If you’re doing business at home then you’re the only one who get access to your computer so there’s really no way that your account is going to get hack even if you have a weak password unless you got into a phishing links or online keyloggers.
Besides, if you happen to get caught into this type of stuffs, then no matter how strong your password is. It will still be recorded and your account gets hacked.
“Best Vacuum Cleaner Reviews | dyson vacuum reviews”
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Carlos, you are quite true on that. Basically, there are many hacking methods. Having a strong password just extend the duration time for a brute force technique. Which it does not technically stop the phishing technique or keyloggers technique that you had just mentioned. Those two required the application side (which means the host side) to take certain precaution to prevent this. For instance, implementing a PKI authentication to fight against phishing or using out-of-band communication technique to fight keyloggers. However at the user side alone, these techniques are not possible because only the host can determine. As a result, the best and only way for a end user to secure his identity is to have a strong password. Unless the host gave the second factor option but the user choose not to use
Alan Tay’s recent post ..Facebook Killer Video is the New Scam
I keep changing my passwords every 3 weeks to ensure they stay safe.as for keeping them private I stick to the old stand by..pen and paper. you know ..the white stuff with lines on it. lol This proves to be the best way…why? A hacker can not hack a sheet of paper.
also after you are finished online…clean your system with some thing like ccleaner .
The biggest mistake most people (not all) make is that they never change their passwords..you must do this as a reg thing. Think of it as part of your weekly cleaning task.
stay safe online
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
I do agree on this especially writing on a piece of paper. It was known as not secure before the invention of Trojan and keylogger
Alan Tay’s recent post ..Facebook Killer Video is the New Scam
Twitter: techcrates
says:
Great tips to create a strong password … Truly said that most users create 6-8 char password
Salman @ Tech Blog’s recent post ..How to Choose the Best High Speed Internet Providers
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
This was the news I got from one of the hacked data. Those data were actually the users from a hacking forum. Those were the findings and I am not too sure where I can find back the reference to support my statement.
Alan Tay’s recent post ..Facebook Killer Video is the New Scam
Hi Allan. Thanks for sharing this. It’s a very useful information for us to know how to measure the level of password’s strength.
Andrew Walker’s recent post ..Cardstore.com Coupon Code
There are nice tips to be prevent from being hacked. It is by making the password strong.
Using password generator can be the best way to get a very strong password for creating an account, but the only problem with this is the user has high possibility to forget this password. Whatever the chosen way just to come up with a great password, it’s still advisable to maintain record of all your account username and password most especially. Also, never ever use one password for all items just to make sure that even if one account gets hacked, other accounts will be safe.,
Mark’s recent post ..I will need to get my weight down and energy up to the level that the P90X system requires
Twitter: simonjohn904
says:
thanks for sharing your tips to create a strong password to protect from others.