Passwords, eh? Ever wondered what the computing world would be without them? How would we keep our data safe? How would we ensure that it’s us when logging in to our favourite social media app or into Netflix on your trusty laptop. An entire thesis can be written about what could go wrong if we didn’t have passwords. They are the keys to locks on our precious computing information. Here's FIVE tips on password safety...
That’s just hypotheticals, though. We’re facing password related problems in the real world too, where passwords are very much still a thing. It’s surprising that even with a safety feature such as strong as a password, people can still get their personal information compromised. That brings us to the question many people have asked themselves: “Is my password really safe?”
The answer to this question is quite complex, and it requires a deep analysis of your password. What we can tell you, is what makes a good password good. Here’s a list of things you should add to your password if you want to make it as impenetrable as possible:
The password length
The length of the password used on your computer is crucial in determining whether your password is safe or not. If we look at it purely through probability, it’s very easy to understand why a longer password may be harder to guess than a shorter one. With a longer character length, if someone does try to guess your password, they’ll have to try a lot more combinations to reach it. Making it much hard to just guess by trial and error. Bots are computer programs that be programmed to try every combination of passwords and the longer your password is, the exponentially harder if it has to try every combo.
Mix of letters
When we say your password should have a mix of letters, what we really mean is that there should be a random, unorganised, mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. Just adding one or two different case letters could increase the number of possible character combinations manifold. Although, we’d recommend using a quasi-word. Something that is easy to remember, not actually a word you’d find in the dictionary. E.g. KopoBoom142
This way, even if someone is able to guess and deduce your password (email, website or other computer login), they still won’t know which letter is uppercase or lowercase, causing further confusion.
Addition of numbers and symbols
A very important aspect which isn’t always considered by people is to add a lot of numbers and a lot of symbols to their password. What makes this very important, is that it opens the possibility within the keyboard up by adding many more plausible characters within the password. Now, instead of just upper and lower case letters, scammers will have to guess numbers and symbols too. Depending on your need for computer security will determine how far you go with this.
No personal information
Now, this goes without saying, but if you have personal information as your password, you may want to change it immediately. Your name, date of birth, a loved one's name or anything of significance can be used by people who know you or have your data. Often the computer bots we spoke about before will search through your computer and documents and look for common words or personal names and try those combinations out first.
No dictionary words
This might be a little hard to wrap your head around, but the ultimate password does not have any dictionary words in it. It is full of random assortment of letters, numbers and symbols. This way, the scammer has absolutely nowhere to start when it comes to guessing your password. Realistically, the only way to use such a password is to have a password manager to remember it for you. We recommend Bitwarden as it can help you generate insanely long and complex passwords and all you need to remember is the master password – you better make sure that follows our earlier guidelines.
If you need any help with passwords on your computer or would like help setting up Bitwarden as a password manager, please give us a call.