Your Password Is Too Easy To Guess
| Sonya Khan |
Everyone of us has a computer and have access to Internet connection. We also have email accounts, we are member of many social networking sites, forums and have stored our documents, videos, pics and many other stuff online. Every single website you visit, requires you to become a member of it and for that you need to register at their site with aPASSWORD.
Using an Internet for so many years made me realized that how this Password really has become crucial now a days. Where almost all of my private, confidential and sensitive information is stored at various websites in the form of documents, social updates, pics and one security breach can really put me in a disastrous situation.
Making your password a stronger one is not a big deal but to memorize it, is another problem. It’s wisely said that the most memorable passwords are the easiest to crack, while the most secure are a jumble of characters that are impossible to recall / remember. Many people uses same password for each and every website they visit, few people have 2 or 3 different passwords which they uses for most of their websites. But the question remains the same, how many passwords should I have it or which practice should i follow?
We all know that in order to make a strong password, it should be big enough with mix characters. For example I checked a sample password strength online on a website, when I entered "shaikh", the site suggested that It would take 0.077 seconds for a desktop PC to crack your password. Then i changed the word into "shaikh1" and it suggested that it will take 19 seconds. For "$haikh1" it would take 3 minutes, for "$haikh123" would take 6 days and for "$haikh1234" it would take 344 days. It's really interesting to see how the simple change in characters makes your password more secure, but how many of us follow this rule?
Note: This is a very important article and i have tried my best to explain it in the most simplest way. But still if some of you find it a bit GEEKY / Technical, then you can ask me any question for further clarifications. Please keep sending me your replies / feedback after reading the article and keep asking me the questions about the things which you want to learn about.WHAT I NEED IS JUST A REPLY OR A FEEDBACK FROM YOU GUYS.
Anyone with a good computer speed and an Internet connection can hack your weak password in a matter of time with the help of a Brute Force Attacks. This is accomplished when a hacker uses a specially written piece of software to attempt to log into a site using your credentials like your name, pin code, bank account no, all the dictionary words etc.
Now you would be thinking that how the Hacker will get to know which websites i browse, which bank I use, what is my login ID for the sites which i frequently visits? This Information is stored nowhere else but in your Computer itself in the form of Internet Cookies, Temporary Internet Files / Cache which are stored in your computer. These junk files assists hackers to get the details about you. (Read this post to clear the junk files from your computer).
Is it really that easy to hack anyone's password? Well that depends on the length and complexity of your password. This is soooooooo Important that i don’t know how to emphasize on it. Most people just don't care about all of this until they become the target of the Hacker. You can read : Check Online How Much Strong Your Password Is
Now you would be thinking that how the Hacker will get to know which websites i browse, which bank I use, what is my login ID for the sites which i frequently visits? This Information is stored nowhere else but in your Computer itself in the form of Internet Cookies, Temporary Internet Files / Cache which are stored in your computer. These junk files assists hackers to get the details about you. (Read this post to clear the junk files from your computer).
Is it really that easy to hack anyone's password? Well that depends on the length and complexity of your password. This is soooooooo Important that i don’t know how to emphasize on it. Most people just don't care about all of this until they become the target of the Hacker. You can read : Check Online How Much Strong Your Password Is
Over Confident or Misconception or Carelessness
1. My password is the best one – What made you so sure about it, have you checked it online or have you really followed the guidelines (Most probably not)
2. Who cares about me and why any one will hack my information -- Once you are online, you are on the Hit List. The hacker can be anyone may be your friend or any unknown person
3. I don’t get or have any sensitive or confidential information stored online – You simply don’t have any idea that what a hacker can do once your email account get compromised. He can go to your Bank website and tells them using your credentials that I've forgotten my account password and email it to me. Then what!!! (it’s only an example)
10 Most Commonly STUPID Passwords
From different reports on Internet i came to know that below 10 are the most common passwords that people use for their online email accounts or for other online services.UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123
Last Words
This article is just a reminder to all of those people, who are not thinking about the security and taking the password management task too easy. Take my advice, list down all the username and passwords of the websites which you frequently visit and take a time to think about making it further stronger. In the next post, i will guide you step by step how you can really make a super strong password for each website and by following my steps you can easily remember all of your passwords as well. Believe me, it will make your life much easy and tension free.
Do you use same password for each website? Or You have 2 or 3 passwords which you use most commonly everywhere? Don't forget to reply me with your comments / feedback.
Do you use same password for each website? Or You have 2 or 3 passwords which you use most commonly everywhere? Don't forget to reply me with your comments / feedback.
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Umair Shaikh
