Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Is Your Password Secure?
Thursday, April 28, 2011 by Michelle Hartley
We see it happen all the time, somehow some way, a hacker has
obtained your password and now your credit card bill is $10,000 or
you have $.50 left in your once thousand dollar checking account.
Password security is something everyone takes seriously.
We all have read the articles that tell you the best way to
create a password is to mix up 4 letters with 3 numbers and 2
symbols, something we all naturally forget. But is all the password
confusion really necessary to keep us "secure forever?"
According to the article "The Usability of Passwords" from baekdal.com,
there's actually an easier way. The article defends that an
excessively complex password does not necessarily equal optimum
security. Often the most secure passwords are not those that are
overly difficult, but those that have multiple words.
As explained by Baekdal, the main ways hackers obtain
passwords is by asking, guessing, brute force attacks, common
word attacks, and dictionary attacks. Brute force, common word and
dictionary attacks all happen from hackers using software
that continually guesses either specific combinations of
letters or words until it reaches the correct one.
Many companies have made it more difficult for hackers to obtain
passwords by only allowing a certain number of passwords to be
entered in a specific amount of time. By utilizing time delays
between sign-in attempts and enacting penalty periods for entering
in numerous incorrect passwords, the companies that help enhance
password security have severely slowed down the efforts of
hackers.
Though these restrictions are helpful, it is still imperative to
do our part to ensure our passwords are safe forever. As
we all know, using simple words or passwords that are personal,
such as your name, the street you live on, or simply using the word
"password," will leave you very susceptible to these types of
attacks. Therefore, we all have 12 different, extremely difficult
passwords to remember.
What Baekdal has found is that the security of the 3 letter, 2
number, 4 symbol passwords is the same lifetime security you get
from using a 3 common word password. The article uses the example
of a three common word password being "this is fun," which would be
secure for 2,537 years. In comparison, the complex password
"J4fS<2," is only secure for 219 years. Clearly, "this is fun"
is easier to remember (and actually more secure) then "J4fS<2."
To be even more secure you can utilize a password with 3 relatively
uncommon words. The article gives us the example of "fluffy is
puffy" which is secure for 39,637,200 years.
Therefore, by combining both penalty periods and time delays
with a password that contains 3 relatively uncommon
words, you can be safe from hackers for a lifetime without the
hassle of remembering complicated passwords.
Until next time -
Michelle Hartley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
DC IT Support &
Consulting
Outsourced Marketing Services
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