Week 5: ELI85 - Passwords
Remember that time I helped you set up your passwords for things, yeah well we need to revisit that. Since then I have gone and got something called an education and wow...we need to change some of your passwords.
47% of passwords based on a name
42% based on significant dates or numbers, such as birthdays
14% based on locations or places of interest
20-38% of surveyed users reuse the same password across different sites
20-27% modify an existing password across multiple services
Ok, but what’s the problem with this? Well, attackers can figure out passwords made from the first four by looking at your social media! and if they manage to crack one password then it may be used across many sites! So passwords like
Probably not the best password because there’s a lot of relevant context in it. Even though the worst-case scenario would mean that it would take 2.48 hundred trillion centuries to crack, there are better alternatives.
This one, although it’s hard to remember, is much, much harder to crack. In fact, this one will take 16.50 trillion centuries to crack (^_^).
Now I know what you’re thinking, who would want your password? Well, it’s not about directly attacking you, hackers attack companies and then sell that information online. Ok, but if they take say 1million passwords from a company surely it’ll take sooooo long to crack all of them that even if your password was taken you wouldn’t really have to worry too much. Wrong again I’m afraid.
https://medium.com/hackernoon/20-hours-18-and-11-million-passwords-cracked-c4513f61fdb1
This lady managed to crack 11 million passwords in less than 1 day for only $18.
So here are some rules for making a good password:
Create a long password (at least 12 characters)
Make it unique to each site
Add capital letters, numbers, symbols (symbols are great! use them!)
Avoid using words from a dictionary.
Make sentences that don’t make sense to anyone but you
You can use this site to judge whether or not the passwords you’re creating are strong! https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
I’m sure you’re wondering, this is too much to remember...should I be writing down all the passwords in one place so that I don’t have to remember them all? Well, software has the answer - you can use a Password Manager! Something like LastPass, don’t worry I’ll help you set this up when I’m over next :D