Five Tips for a Powerful Password

Yesterday, a massive international phishing scam successfully exposed the log-in and password information to more than 30,000 e-mail accounts. Among the first e-mail providers to be compromised was Hotmail, which hosted over 10,000 of the breached accounts. Before the accounts were taken down from the Internet, Bogdan Calin, of the cybersecurity firm Acunetix, examined them and compiled some pretty interesting statistics.

According to Calin’s report, the most common password used in the accounts (64 total) was “123456.” Countless other accounts had similarly weak passwords, including “123456789,” “111111,” and more. Perhaps the most significant statistic was the fact that a whopping 42% of the passwords consisted only of lowercase letters with no numbers and no symbols.

Hmm. Looks like it’s time for a refresher course on what makes a good password. With that in mind, check out ReputationDefender’s

Top Five Tips for a Powerful Password.

1. If it’s in the dictionary, it shouldn’t be in your password. Many people like to use words or phrases as passwords because they’re easy to remember. Unfortunately, what makes them easy to remember also makes them easy for scammers to steal. Many hackers use special programs that are designed to scroll through the dictionary and repeatedly attempt to log-in to your account with common words, or simple derivations of them.
2. The longer, the better. You know that expression, “Go big or go home!” Well, it applies to passwords too. When making your password, try and use between 8 and 12 characters.
3. Mix it up! Passwords MUST include a strong combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. And when I say combination, I mean a real combination. You can’t just tack an exclamation point or a number on to the end of your name. If you need help thinking of a good combination, try using a mnemonic.
4. Don’t repeat your password. In today’s “go-go-go” society, it’s tempting to use the same passwords for multiple web applications. Not only is it faster, but it gives your brain more room to remember the important things, like what’s going on with Britney Spears these days. Despite the convenience of having one password, however, you must resist the urge toward laziness and take the time to come up with something unique for each one of your accounts. With only one password, one compromised account means that they are all compromised.
5. No cute stuff. Your password shouldn’t include the name of your dog, the name of your favorite movie, or the name of anything else that is personally identifiable. With Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and countless other social networking sites, it doesn’t take much effort someone to find out what you like and try using it for your password. There are hundreds of places to share your personality online, your password shouldn’t be one of them.