How Safe is Your Password?

Originally this was going to be an article from us at CE Services about how to ensure safe online working. However when discussing it the password section ballooned bigger and bigger so we decided to give it the space it deserves!

Your Password

If we said to you design a key to your life by which you could access your family pictures, online banking, insurance details, home movies, business finances, diary or most intimate thoughts you would make it as difficult to replicate or fake as possible. So why when choosing a password do so many people ignore the gravitas of that decision?

For millions of people their passwords is their key to their life

In the IT world we have soreheads after repeatedly banging our heads against a brick wall with regards to password strength! The number of offices where a user’s login is Password1 or the same as the login is incredible. The minimum your password should be is:

• Not a word you would find in the dictionary
• Mixture of upper and lower case letters
• 8 Characters long
• Include numbers
• Include at least one symbol such as # or $.

For example an OK password maybe: 48LoFK7$

Best Password Practice

For best password practice however your password should be at least 14 characters long.. For example:

!PP!£14Y&i$B:)TE*

This is easier to remember than it looks:

Attention – Password –Protection – Is – Extremely – Important – For – You – And – I – Scammers – Beware – Smiley face – The – End – Star

Microsoft rate this password as 4/4 or ‘best’ for password strength.

Test your password @ :

https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspx?WT.mc_id=Site_Link

People often think that these types of passwords are difficult to remember but they shouldn’t be. It is commonly assumed that it takes 21 times of doing something for it to become a habit. Most users will login in 21 times in 2 days. (Assuming they are locking the computer every time they leave it! But that’s a different article!)

However we’re sorry but it isn’t enough to have one good password!  It is important to have different passwords.

The standard reply to this is there are too many to remember which the author empathises with and recognises that having similar passwords is infinitely better than having them written down, stored in you mobile phone etc.

So what is the best solution to this conundrum?

Prioritise your most important passwords.

For example prioritise your PC login or online banking password and make sure they meet the above requirements as well being unique! Different users will prioritise their password strength differently, but is  useful to think of it from another perspective,

from all the sites you use a password for which ones have you got the most to lose by your password being used by a malicious entity?

This might lead you to think that security of your fantasy sports team isn’t as essential as your online banking so you could use the same password for all your online sports teams.

So if you’re reading this now and have a weak password CHANGE IT NOW. When you next meet your family or work colleagues pass on this article and make sure they have strong passwords. As it is no use you having a strong password if the one your partner uses to check your joint bank account is weak.

Tagged as: it support, Passwords