Along the line of poor passwords include your kids' names, birthdays, your current street name and your pets names…all of which is information others can easily access.
-Do not use your network username as your password. -Don't use easily guessed passwords, such as “password” or “user.” -Do not choose passwords based upon details that may not be as confidential as you'd expect, such as your birth date, your Social Security or phone number, or names of family members.
Do use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers. Don't use commonly used passwords such as 123456, the word "password," “qwerty”, “111111”, or a word like, “monkey”. Do make sure your user passwords are at least eight characters long.
Brute force isn't the only way to hack a password. Hackers can also use dictionary attacks. But a passphrase will protect users against dictionary attacks more than a password. Although using a password that contains only dictionary words is not recommended, it is still common and can get hacked easily.
But what about safety? Passwords written down on a sticky sheet or kept in a notebook are a relatively safe way to manage passwords. There is little chance the cybercriminal would try to access your home and rob your password book. Of course, the risk increases if you carry the notebook around in public.
Easily guessable passwords, such as “password” or “123456,” are the easiest to crack. Other easily crackable passwords include personal information like birth dates, names, and addresses. Short passwords or those that use only lowercase letters are also vulnerable to cracking.
An example of a unique and strong password created by a password generator is “JU4$4SX%su^N.” It's twelve characters long, has no predictable pattern and contains a mixture of numbers, special characters and both uppercase and lowercase letters.
Try to include numbers, symbols, and both uppercase and lowercase letters. Avoid using words that can be found in the dictionary. For example, swimming1 would be a weak password. Random passwords are the strongest.
countable noun. A password is a secret word or phrase that you must know in order to be allowed to enter a place such as a military base, or to be allowed to use a computer system.
According to security.org, passwords with at least one uppercase letter, number, symbol and at least 12 characters will take the longest for a password cracking program to crack – security.org estimates 34,000 years for a password that includes all of those criteria.
Some hackers can break 8-character passwords in a few hours, but cracking a 15-character passphrase is still next to impossible for most hackers. It's crucial that your passwords are at least 12 characters long (16 or more is even better).
Examples of Weak Passwords
Short passwords – A single word such as Igloo or Peanuts, as well as a numerical phrase like 12345. Recognizable keystroke patterns – Take a look at your keyboard and find QWERTY or 1QAZ2WSX.
Weak passwords are those that are easily guessed by unauthorized users. Examples include “1234”, “password”, “temp”, etc. A weak password poses security risks at two levels—it may enable unauthorized access to confidential information, and may potentially enable an unauthorized user to compromise the system.
1Password has never had a breach. But if one should occur, a breach of our systems would not put your sensitive vault data at risk. When we designed the security architecture of 1Password, we had to account for the possibility that some day our servers could be compromised.
Phishing is the most common hacking technique.