With cyber crime on the rise, we thought it would be a good time to explain how important it is to have secure passwords in place!
A strong password will have the aim of defeating ‘brute-force’ attacks. This is where hackers use sheer computing power to try thousands of possible passwords, until they stumble on the right combination. By adding more characters to the mix, you increase the number of possible combinations an attacker must try.
It can take as little as 1.8 seconds for a modern supercomputer to break an 8-character password which contains only lower case characters. Adding uppercase letters, digits & symbols will require much more time to crack.
The strongest passwords are memorable multiple word phrases rather than a ‘password’. Ideally, they would be an unforgettable combination of unexpected words, rather than a predictable English sentence.
Using longer, more complex phrases with random works, makes it much more difficult mathematically for a ‘brute force attack’ to succeed.
As more of our lives are lived online, we collect more and more passwords. It is important not to repeat a password on multiple sights. A solution could be to access a password management system or app, of which there are many options online.
The 10 worst passwords taken from leaked lists of hacked passwords are:
123456
password
qwerty
letmein
football
iloveyou
admin
welcome
monkey
login
Are your passwords secure enough to stop a cyber attack?
2018-03-08
