What is a password
A password (word that enables access) is a set of letters and / or numbers (at least 8 alphanumeric characters) that allows access to reserved online pages or to our devices (smartphones, computers, etc.). Each unique username (e-mail address, username, ID, etc.) is associated with a password to be put which constitutes a (hopefully) secret unique identification code.
The main mistakes about passwords
In most cases, passwords are underestimated in their importance, because people do not realize how important this security system is in a world that is increasingly moving on the internet and digital.
Examples of unsafe passwords and expert advice
If you ask any IT security professional if they know what passwords are and how they work, most of them will answer yes.
Why are password breaches commonplace, then?
Why do users put so little ingenuity into choosing their passwords?
The answer is for a defect of form. In fact, many people continue to choose wrong passwords.
Password examples?
The most common password of 2016 was "123456". Second place went to the word "password", and third place to the code "12345678".
Another mistake made by people is to use the same word repeated in reverse, for example the password "pizzaazzip". As experts point out, this is another of the most used formulas to create insecure passwords and cybercrime knows this very well. There are dozens of (free) programs on the net that do nothing but try keywords and guess passwords. And this type of pattern is among the easiest to spot. Among the tips to create secure passwords there is the fundamental one of increasing the randomness in the relationship between words, so that deciphering the sequence of words becomes really complex even for the most skilled hacker.
Create stronger passwords
How to create a secure password, that is, as inviolable as possible? The answer is: with a little cunning and a lot of strategy. Let's discover some important techniques to make them safer.
A password to be considered complex must include:
Uppercase and lowercase letters.
Numbers.
Special characters.
Let's see an example of creating strong passwords:
A prime example of a password is playing with the acronyms of a simple and representative phrase such as:
My name is Renato and I have 3 children
Which becomes: MniRaih3C
These types of passwords are more precisely called passphrases, are easy to remember and considered complex by security experts. The chosen phrase can be lengthened as desired to increase the level of complexity even more.
But how does a hacker guess my password?
We have seen tips and tricks to create a secure password, difficult to intercept by a hacker or malicious person. But how do hackers really steal a password?
Some password hacking methods can help you choose passwords that are more secure, and difficult to intercept. Some of the methods used by hackers to crack a password are:
Social Engineering: Social engineering uses sites such as social networks and all online places of interaction to talk to the victim or carefully study their profile. By highlighting important details that could reveal a password (names of children, boyfriends, friends, dates and places of birth...), the hacker manages to reconstruct the passwords.
Brute force attack: The brute force of this type of attack consists in the execution of a program that, in a short time, makes a very large number of combinations (taken from a dictionary created ad hoc, perhaps with the insertion of words identified by social engineering) of passwords. The goal? Locate the exact password. By making a high number of requests per second, a brute force attack is triggered by the most equipped hackers, since it is necessary to dedicate a busy computer for many hours
To avoid having your password stolen, experts recommend:
Avoid passwords that contain personal data, traceable on social networks or online (children's names, boyfriends, personal data and so on).
Avoid entering password data on sites and social networks.
Create strong passwords, consisting of numbers and letters (alphanumeric) and special characters
Do not always repeat the same password on all sites.
Enter the access lock when the password has been wrong for a few consecutive times (to block any brute force attacks)
Where you can activate two-factor authentication, (MFA) we will talk about in the next article.
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