Is Your Password “Password,” “123456,” or “qwerty”?

Sometimes I feel like I am a broken record because I am constantly suggesting that people change their passwords and not use the same password for everything. It is surprising to me how many people just have no idea how simple it is to hack a password.  It takes a criminal hacker less than one second to hack a 5 character alpha-numeric password.

This has changed since I wrote The Useability of Passwords. Technology is always becoming more sophisticated and simply changing a few numbers for letters is not as secure as it was before. Creating long, complex passwords is essential, but how do you do that without going crazy trying to remember it all?

According to this article in PC Mag, the top ten most common passwords are as follows:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. link182
10. (your first name)

Do you see your password there? Even if you don’t, you may want to rethink your personal password strategy and give it a boost.

The smartest password plan I have ever heard was from a person I met at a conference. She said her family had a phrase that they used all the time and they used that as a “base” password. For the sake of clarity, let’s make up a phrase.

Let’s say her family always said “I wish I had a million dollars. Hot Dog!” (I <3 “It’s a Wonderful Life”) The base password would be “1wiham$hd!”

Next, they would use the first three letters of the website they were using. Example, for Target.com the password would be “1wiham$hd!Tar”. That way, in case of emergency or accident, the family could figure out the password if they needed to pay the utility bills or check a credit card account.

This system creates a long, complex password that is easy (for this family) to remember but hard for a criminal to guess. I also like that it creates custom passwords for every site used that are easy to remember without having to write anything down. Here are a few tips to remember when creating your own system.

Some Do’s and Don’ts for creating safe passwords:

DO pick a password that can be recalled easily.

DO use a mix of upper, lowercase and special characters like #, $, %, *.

DO create a password with at least 8 characters, using 10 or more increases password strength exponentially.

DO use a password that can be typed without looking at the keyboard, making it harder for shoulder surfers to steal.

DON’T write your password down.

DON’T use personal information or information that can be gleaned from your FaceBook account.

DON’T use any commonly used passwords—a quick Google search will reveal such lists.

DON’T rely on using numbers in place of letters—doing so will not make your password stronger because today’s programs know that “Pa55w0rd” means “password”.

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there!

Tracy

@McAfeeCyberMom on Twitter

Tags: creating safe passwords, safe password tips

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