Strong Passwords

What is a strong password?

 

When designing a password, we need to keep three things in mind:

  1. First and foremost, if we use paper to write alternative passwords down, BE SURE to shred that paper, no matter how little it is!
  2. Second:  let’s remember that our goal is to reduce the number of passwords we have to remember to four:
    1. Our network password must be unique.
    2. The password to “the core” must be unique.
    3. Our personal passwords can share the same “strong” password with descriptors.
    4. All other bank passwords can have one strong password with descriptors in front and back.
  3. Strong passwords have the following six characteristics:
    1. UPPER CASE TEXT
    2. lower case text
    3. Numbers (1234567890)
    4. Special Characters (~`!@#$%^&*)
    5. At least eight characters long
    6. No Dictionary Words
It’s the last one there, “no dictionary words,” that often gets us.  We should keep in mind that cracker software goes through the dictionary in less than 20 seconds nowadays.  Thus, the password Dictionary1! has five of the six characteristics, but is really only a 3 character password!
Can you tell us why?

Original article by Vigilize!

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