The more difficult a password is to guess, the more secure it will be. For example, if you choose a one-character password that can be any upper- or lower-case letter or a digit, there are 62 possibilities. A cracking program can guess it very quickly. Using the same possible characters, an eight-digit password has about 218 trillion possibilities. Unfortunately, people generally put the odds in the program’s favor by choosing easily-guessed combinations. Therefore, security specialists recommend these guidelines:
* Use as many characters as possible (minimum eight)
* Include uppercase and lowercase letters
* Include digits and punctuation marks
* Don’t use personal information, such as names or birthdays
* Don’t use words found in a dictionary
Techniques for strong passwords:
* Use a vanity license plate; for example: “GR8way2B”
* Use several small words with punctuation marks: “betty,boop$car”
* Put punctuation in the middle of a word: “Roos%velt”
* Use an unusual way of contracting a word: “ppcrnbll”
* Use the first letter of each word in a phrase, with a random number: “hard to
crack this password” = “htc5tp”
Passwords must be changed periodically to reduce the likelihood of a particular password being compromised over time. As a reliable best practice, passphrases should be a minimum of ten characters in length, and have three of the four additional attributes –
1) uppercase letters
2) lowercase letters,
3) a number
4) a special character.
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pinky girl ~
32 minutes ago