As our dependency on the internet in every aspect of day to day life grew, so did the spectrum of security risks it poses to our lives, from handling your finances and bill payments to simply networking with friends on the multitude of social networks currently available;
You are exposing yourself to malicious attacks carried out by both professional hackers wielding increasingly complex and efficient security circumvention protocols, methods and paradigms and the more common brand of online criminals, the amateur who knows you and is out to cause you harm. It would help if you learned more about Secure Password Guidelines.
When approaching the road to Secure Password Guidelines. The first and, in most cases, the only line of defense available to most computer users is the password, so you need this line of defense to be as stalwart as possible. Below are a few guidelines that you should consider when tackling creating a new password.
Secure Password Guidelines
1- Don’t use a password that is common knowledge or easily discovered by someone who knows you, for example, your birthday, the city you were born in, your favorite actor/sports team/car, etc.
2- Most Hackers use dictionary attacks to discover a password; hence strengthening a password requires numbers, special characters, and capital and low case letters.
E.g., Consider that you chose your password to be (red rose); this password is considered easily compromised, while changing it to (9ed_9o$e) would make it a stronger password.
A 3-A common method for strengthening passwords is using a sentence then making a password comprised of letters in the words of that sentence, these could be first letters, or if you want to add an extra measure to its strength, it could be the last letters, second letters, alternating between first and last letters, etc.
E.g. (Even if you are a minority of one, The Truth is the Truth) becomes (Eiyaamoo_Ttitt), using special characters and numbers would make it even more secure; it never hurts to be creative and a little bit paranoid when it comes to online security.
4- Never use the same password for every website or service you use online; putting all your virtual eggs in one basket is the most common mistake one makes when it comes to online security.
For example, suppose you use the same password for your email and Facebook account. In that case, all it would require for a hacker to gain access to both is typing your email and the password he acquired into Facebook et voila; he now has access to more information that could lead to more accounts on other services being compromised.
More Secure Password Guidelines
5-Password length matters, and eight characters long password is less secure than a 12, and both are less secure than a 16 character long password.
6-Most online services offer methods to reset your password, so it pays to secure them; the most common of them is the secret question approach in which you set both the question and the answer.
Securing the question should start by making sure it’s not something that can easily be known by someone who knows you; steer clear of simple questions, especially the ones most online services suggest.
If a Recovery by Phone option is available, use it and disable all other recovery options. For example, this would send a randomly generated code or URL in a text message to your phone should you decide to reset your password.
Last but not least, never share your credentials with anyone under any circumstance. This is key when it comes to Secure Password Guidelines.
