Tips & Tricks

Top 5 Tips to Create Secure Passwords

Most of the times, passwords of the websites are hacked due the gaffe by the website itself.  For instance there were thousands of LinkedIn passwords compromised this summer mainly because of the security malfunctions by the company. Individuals face the double risk once the hackers are successful in obtaining the site’s passwords file. Firstly if you have encoded passwords, hackers can still obtain weak password through a simple computer program. Secondly if your authorizations are visible any other site containing the same passwords and logins becomes more prone to be unprotected even it is not attacked originally. In order to deal with it here are some the top practices for the password users to follow to diminish the risk.

Tips to Create Secure Passwords
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Keep your passwords complex

Majority of the password cracking tools are based on the regular dictionary terms. Attacks are made on the basis of the basic dictionary terms and commonly appearing non dictionary terms in week passwords like common names and nicks etc. In order to dislocate the dictionary try to use phonetic or graphic substitutes. Make your password at least 8 to 10 characters long containing at least one capital letter one small letter one number and one symbol. Avoid using repeated letters or letters in a same pattern on the key board, any dictionary terms. The longer the password the more difficult it would be to crack mathematically by the password cracking tools.

Keep your passwords memorable

Although longer and complex passwords are secure but can be easily slipped out of the memory. So create your password in such a way based on certain logic that may be easier for you to recall but difficult for others to comprehend. For instance ‘it was the best time’ can be readjusted by making substitutions like ‘Itwux#1Timex’ such a password can be easier for you to remember and hard for others to guess. So be tricky while deciding a password.

Elude personal data and clear terms

In February 2012 a hacker group with the name of anonymous released the passwords of Syria’s many high ranking officials most of which were ‘123456’ or ‘12345’ in fact these were the most commonly used passwords. In 2011 an analytic firm SplashData revealed a list of 25 passwords most commonly used and should be avoided. These include “password”,”passw0rd”, “abc123”, “baseball” and “qwerty” etc. In addition, avoid utilizing your personal information while setting your passwords. For instance if you use your date of birth or your passport number and even your clos pal’s names or children names , nick names or pet names these can be easily exploited while  answering the password reset questions.

Don’t repeat the passwords

Once your passwords are hacked for any site or account than any other account having the same passwords are more vulnerable to hacking. For instance if you have the account name Dan and password “123456” then these Dan/123456 authorization code can be utilized to try to access your other accounts. If you are using the same code for all the accounts and one got hacked all the    accounts would become on the mercy of hackers.

In order to deal with this situation you can simply choose one complex password as basic kernel and can use any other additions according to account type or site type etc. This would give a unique password for every account. For instance if you choose nfs#ex3 as your basic password then you can make nfs#ex3_bNk for bank and nfs#ex3_InS for
insurance password.

Use some assistance tools

You can take help from certain tools to set up a secure password, one such tool is Symantec’s secure password generator. This site would help you provide some conditions like how many numbers, symbols, letters, caps or small letters to be used then it gives you a list of 50 passwords arranged as per your specification.  You can choose your password from that list and get it copied and printed to keep your record.

The top browsers also offer many add-ons that can save your passwords and can generate them on request. They also contain some plug-ins that use master password to trace out your saved passwords. They offer many plugins but make sure understand the risk associated with using this plug-ins particularly if you are using combined network technologies as happens in case of virtual phone systems. When you choose to save your passwords they become more vulnerable to attack so make sure you only save passwords on your personal systems only which no one else is using. And if you are using any browser plug-ins then make sure that the plug-ins use encrypted files and also don’t forget to log out of the website when you are completed with your work.

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