How to Protect Your Web Accounts from Being Hacked - Part 3 of 4: Sensible password precautions

How to Protect Your Web Accounts from Being Hacked




1 : Use a very strong password. A hacker can access your account by using a attack called 'dictionary attack', in which all of the words from a standard dictionary of the English language is placed in the password box and after a while, the password may be revealed and a hack will occur. To reduce the possibility of a dictionary attack, add numbers, alphabets and even symbols (!@#$%^&) altogether. If the site allows for it, use a pass phrase with numbers and symbols too - this is even harder to crack, although it's not provided as an option as often as passwords.
An example: Suppose you have the password 'Hellotoyou' (without the quotes). This could be hacked within an hour or less using a dictionary attack. However, if you modify it to something like: '#ello2u' (without the quotes), it would take more than 1 month or even a year to crack and the hacker is going to give up and look for an easier target.


2 : Don't ever use obvious passwords. For example many people have the tendency of keeping the password as '<your own="" name="">', or 'password' or 'password123' , '<your girlfriend="" boyfriend="" name=""> '. People trying to access your account will use the obvious examples first.
There are password strength checkers available online for you to test a range of passwords before using them. This can help you work out what is as strong as possible each time.
SHARE

About Ali Zain

    Blogger Comment
    Facebook Comment

0 comments:

Post a Comment