Passwords Today
Everyone faces challenges today staying secure online with having to remember multiple passwords. Re-using a password for different services poses significant risk if one services is hacked since your information is now available for the other services you use.
It is important to appreciate that with technology today every password possible under 12 characters has been cracked and is available to hackers.
If you use a password that is under 12 characters, regardless of how unique or complex it is, it is easy for hackers to know it.
Password examples
Password | Time to brute force crack |
simon1234 | 7 hours to crack |
Simon1234 | 39 days to crack |
simon1234$ | 344 hours to crack |
Simon1234$ | 58 years to crack |
simon1234$$$$$ | 6 million years to crack |
Simon1234$$$$$ | 2 billion years to crack |
Chocolate!@!@!@!@!@ | 392 quadrillion years |
Test Password Choices For Yourself
Try this web site to try out password options but DO NOT use a real password you care about. Never type your real password (or anything close to it) into a web site that wants to help you check out how secure your password is.
Passwords Can Be Complex Yet Memorable
So, the most important thing I can impress upon you is that your passwords CAN be memorable but if you add in a secret ingredient (do not tell people you add five $ symbols or five sequential !@ on the end, or at the beginning, of your password) then the password can be extremely secure against brute force attacks. After all, I could care less if someone cracks my password in 2 billion years.
Using A Password Manager
I’d strongly encourage you to use a password manager. The very strong and memorable password you create using the tips above can be your master password and you can then store all of your many (hopefully very very complex and impossible to guess) passwords in a password manager. My personal favorite password manager is LastPass. KeePass is also an excellent product that I highly recommend too.