Upgrade Your Password! Microsoft Creates Hacking Awareness by Banning 'Weak' Passcodes; 5 Techniques That Will Do...For Now
Just recently, some unscrupulous hacker was able to breach and leak 117 million LinkedIn accounts. Another instance that underscores the need to tighten password security against the ubiquitous cyberattacks nowadays.
Thankfully, the Microsoft people decided they won't be sleeping on it. They recently announced that they are "dynamically banning" passwords that they deem as weak and hackneyed.
The tech giant said that they see about 10 million accounts being assailed every day so they have a good idea of passwords that are not impregnable. These include "123456," "password," "qwerty," and "starwars," says a Mashable report.
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"We analyse the passwords that are being used most commonly. Bad guys use this data to inform their attacks," says Alex Weinert from Microsoft's Identity Protection team. "What *we* do with the data is prevent you from having a password anywhere near the current attack list, so those attacks won't work."
In line with this, here are some of the tips you might want to consider the next time you create a password for one of your accounts.
The Full-Sentence Technique
This strategy is courtesy of Kurt Muhl of the Saint Paul, Minnesota-based cybersecurity firm RedTeam Security. The idea is to use a phrase or sentence that is easy to remember and develop a password by taking the first letter of each of the words.
Muhl makes use of the phrase "I bought my house for $1" as an example. It will result to the password "Ibmhf$1," which is a pretty strong password considering that it contains an uppercase, lowercase, a number, and special characters.
Use the Method of Substitution
Microsoft suggests using a phrase that you can easily remember and replacing the actual letters with numbers and symbols. You can also misspell the words or use spaces, e.g. "My son's birthday is 12 December, 2004" could give you a password of "Mi$un's Brthd8iz 12124."
Do Away with the Common Pitfalls
Some of the common pitfalls you should refrain from when it comes to developing a password include using personal information, dictionary words, commonly-used phrase and quotes, and the use of one's favorite sports team or animals. You should avoid them unless you want to make the life of hackers easier.
Get Help from a Password Manager
While using longer and more complex passwords could do the trick, the downside is that it could be a real challenge to memorize them. One way to go about this is to make use of a password manager to make your life easier.
There are some reliable and free password managers online, such as LastPass, Dashlane, and KeePass. They generate passwords that are hard to crack for each of your different accounts and store them in a secure storage.
Avoid Reusing Passwords
According to Microsoft researchers, online users tend to use one password for their different accounts. This is a bad habit because it can only compound your potential loss. It's like having a perpetrator break into your house and handing them the keys to your other properties, all at the same time.
