How secure are your passwords?
You’ve probably been told to use strong passwords on your accounts. And I hope you do. But the truth is, most people use weak passwords that are easy for hackers to guess.
How long would it take a hacker to crack your password? Let’s look at a few examples:
(Data from https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/)
Password = Instantly
You might laugh, but “password” is still one of the top 5 most-used passwords. And a hacker will guess it instantly.
Teddy26 = 1 minute
OK, this is a 7 character password, with upper and lowercase letters, and numbers. And it’s easy to remember because Teddy Roosevelt was the 26th president. But it would only take hackers a minute to crack. Definitely not secure.
Purple473! = 5 years
Now you’ve got 10 characters, upper and lowercase letters, a number, and a symbol. In theory, this would take 5 years to crack. But if your favorite color is purple, and you were born in April of ’73, and you’re posting that all over social media, suddenly this password is a lot less secure.
4fin!CM5g%vnQPvK = 1 trillion years
This is a random 16-character password generated by a password manager, and it’s pretty much uncrackable, unless you have an extra trillion years to spare. I hope this is the type of password you’re using on your accounts.
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