The Art of Creating a Strong Password
Make sure to use a ‘Strong Password’ is the most common advice you see in this age of information. With the plethora of websites out there, probably for which you have accounts on, there’s no easy way to remember all those different passwords. So we, you and I, choose the easy way of using simple weak passwords and use the same password on each website. Well, that’s something we should avoid completely. Follow my guide in creating strong passwords.
I was really really bored today and to kill it I did some coding, but it didn’t work. But unfortunately, he didn’t die. So, to kill him (FYI, Murders are illegal) I fired up Netflix (Watched almost everything) followed by Amazon Prime and found out a TV Series called ’Mr.Robot’ (Link) starring Rami Malek. It is a techno thriller that follows Elliot, a young programmer, who works as a cyber-security engineer by day and as a vigilante hacker by night.In an episode, Elliot tries to hack the password of a CTO of a conglomerate called Evil Corps and finds out that it’s a really simple one with his mothers maiden name and a number (in reality it’s really difficult to hack passwords and it’s not as like in the movies). Well, we see a lot of password cracking in that, almost all are weak ones like our passwords.
So let’s dive right in to the Art of Creating Strong Passwords.
RULE NO.1
Please, Don’t be silly.
Never ever use the obvious ones. Stay away from those silly ones. They are the ones that can be easily guessed. Recently I found out that my friend is using ATM pin 1234. Come on guys, that’s the first pin that anyone guess (Pins are 4 digits here), even though he disagree.
For Example:
123456789
123456
qwerty
password
111111111
222222222
12341234 RULE NO.2
Never your name or contact numbers.
Never go for passwords with your names or names of your loved ones(enemies too) and the ones with contact numbers.You might think that it’s secure with name, number and a special character.Well, It’s not. This is the most common passwords that I have seen. Hackers do some reconnaissance before they start and can easily use those information to hack your so called Secure Password.
For Example
John@123
ParKer@765
Bruce@9967451046
9946360247
JohnDoe
BruceWayne
RULE NO.3
Make it long.
Long passwords are difficult to guess and difficult to brute force. Make it really long.
RULE NO.4
Use Passphrases.
Passphrases are sequence of words or other text with or without grammar.Use a combination of numbers words and special characters. A hacker might guess Quagmire, but he or she would find it ridiculously challenging to try to guess QuagmireHancockMerciDeNada. You can also make it more stronger by inserting some special characters like Quagm!reHancockMer$iDeNad@. Passphrases are considered to be stronger since it is difficult to guess and it is long. Also never use passphrases that can be easily guessed like thisisthepassword. Come on guys, RULE NO.1.
RULE NO.5
Never use the same password on everything.
This is also one of most common phenomena that I have observed. Never do this. Hackers can easily hack passwords from less secure websites and easily access all your other accounts like Gmail, Facebook, Paypal etc. This is the first and foremost thing that hackers try after cracking a password. It might be difficult to remember all those passwords, I agree. At-least create different passwords for your email, social media account and financial accounts.
RULE NO.6
Never note it down.
Never write down you passwords somewhere and never ever save passwords on browsers even if it is your personal computer. Hacker can easily hack browsers than servers. Most of the experts say to use a password manager. Well I don’t trust it and don’t recommend it.
RULE NO.7
Use 2-factor authentication.
Use 2-factor authentication systems like Google Authenticator or use OTPs (one time passwords)where ever applicable. While this is not completely fool proof (there’s NSA), it adds an extra layer of security.
RULE NO.8
Never trust anyone.
Do not share passwords with anyone. The easiest method of hacking is social engineering. Hackers can pose to be someone else like your bank manager and can request for passwords. Never fall for it. No company executives or technicians or employees request for passwords or OTPs. Never share anything with anyone. Remember, Never trust anyone.
Remember, everything is broken
Dedicated especially to all Professionals, Teaches, Students, Scholars in the field of Computer Science 😆 (They are the one’s with worst passwords) 😆and all others who uses a computer(Smartphones are technically computers).
