by David Probert

Created on: June 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Under access control, a password falls into the category of something you know. Often times, people leave their passwords on little sticky notes clinging to their monitors, making them something everyone knows. There are several ways to choose a secure password and keep it secure. In this article I will briefly explain password strength and give some advice on how not to have your passwords cracked and used against you.

With more and more people using the Internet for online banking, shopping, paying bills, storing sensitive files, and even web-based email clients that can hold loads of valuable data, password security is a serious issue. Why - because, believe it or not, most people just dismiss it.

Last year, while working for a mid-sized company whose name I will not mention, I performed a simple audit of the domain passwords. The results were staggering frightening. I was able to gather (crack) 97% of the domain passwords in less than five minutes. How was I able to do this? I was able to do it because 40% of the users had blank passwords and the other 57% had either all alpha or numeric passwords that were less than 6 characters in length. The remaining 3% of users, I among them, were the only accounts with passwords where I would actually have to do a little work if I really wanted to crack them.

To be considered strong, your passwords should contain at least 8 to12 characters. These characters should be a mixture of upper/lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Example: N1f&6hC$i2Mq

Another way to strengthen your passwords is not use consecutive character types, such as upper/lower case letters (P@SSw0Rd) or numbers (14ThErO@d). These particular examples are still strong passwords because of the characters around the consecutive letters and numbers, but in most situations this is not the case. Consecutive characters just make it easier for a cracker to move on to the next character which shortens the time it will take to crack the password.

It helps you to remember the password if it means or says something. Example: 4My3yE$0nLy Closer examination will show that this password spells out (For my eyes only). Be creative, it will only add more possibilities for strengthening your passwords.

A good place to check the strength of your passwords is http://www.passwordmeter.com/. They have a rating system that will test your password and show you where the weaknesses are. If you can't come up with a strong password you can try

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