![]() The last step is add ‘special’ characters, plus customise it for different uses/websites/applications, because you shouldn’t re-use the same password for different accounts. Make it semi-unique by adding ‘special’ characters for different accounts It’s a mixture of letters and numbers, with uppercase and lowercase characters thrown in too. But now reverse your year of birth put it either at the start or the end of the password: 7791LhNlEtOyM OR LhNlEtOyM7791Īs it stands, this is a pretty good password. It can be improved further by alternating upper and lower case letters.Īgain, this is simple to do and even to work out in the mind if necessary: LhNlEtOyM 3. The next steps is to add numbers This is a nonsense phrase and isn’t a dictionary word, and so makes a great start for a password – and you can easily remember it. The highlighted letters are the first letters of each word: LHNLETOYM Now, take the first letter of each word from your favourite song or quote. Let’s take a well-known quote, for the sake of an example – “Life has no limitation, except the ones you make”. So, we avoid anything that could be found in a dictionary, but how do find something you can also easily remember – without the need of an Enigma machine to help you? 1. Start with a memorable song, quote or phrase ![]() And even if an account is locked after 6 or 7 attempts, it still provides a significant opportunity to crack passwords across multiple corporate accounts.Īnd if there is no account lockout, why not upload an entire “dictionary” of words & phrases that we know are commonly used – hundreds of thousands of entries contained in a text file. password01, Password123, Password1! etc.). Why? Besides what’s known as a “brute-force” attack, hackers can firstly try common password combinations (e.g. > First off – never use a word found in a dictionary (or combination of) This simple secret is employed by many IT professionals, to deconstruct the simple art of creating a strong, (semi-) unique password – and importantly, one you can always easily remember. Here’s a simple way to create a strong and memorable password Strong password tipsīut we’ve all (or should have) read the advice on what constitutes a strong password, recommendations on policy, but in reality, how can you easily remember a complex and (semi)-unique password? Password123 admin 123456 etc.), they would certainly also use lists of hacked username/passwords, as well as packet sniffing to seek encrypted authentication requests, which can then be run through a list of known encrypted passwords (containing 10 billion+ passwords). Not only would a hacker test common ‘weak’ password combinations (e.g. The password-cracking capabilities of a hacker are considerable! And what’s concerning is that, trying to exploit weak or common-combination passwords is frequently successful (at least for our own ethical hackers performing a penetration test). The ease of exploiting weak passwordsįor a hacker, exploiting weak passwords is a bread-and-butter first step to gain a foothold onto a corporate network, from which they can then further probe to seek more exploitable weaknesses. If any of your accounts have been compromised, and if the same passwords are used for home and work, this could pose a serious security threat. ![]() Has your email/password been exposed in a data breach?įirstly, you can easily check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach. Individually, many people now understand the importance of a strong password, but perhaps it is less well understood that weak passwords within a commercial organisation pose a significant risk to corporate data. Data breaches, big hacks and subsequent data theft isn’t new news yet we continue to see breaches making the headlines almost daily, so naturally we’re all becoming more and more concerned about data security. ![]()
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