Don't Hack Me, Bro

ByMike Moffit

Almost everything we do online these days involves passwords and security. It’s important to take some steps with your passwords to make them more secure. One simple thing you can do is to change your passwords often. Use different passwords between sites. Try to stay away from common words. A good safe option is to choose four random words.

Below is the Wolfram Alpha “estimated years to crack” and passwordmeter.com score.

Here are a few tips and examples for the password “asteroid”, which as-is has a score of 9.64 days (what it takes to crack it) and 10% (efficacy). Here’s how to make it more secure:

  • Use 133t (elite) speak. Elite speak is changing letters to numbers. Example: “ast3r0id”: 2.497 months, 42%
  • Capitalize letters “Ast3R0id”: 19.74 years, 68%
  • Add special characters “A$t3R0!d”: 714.2 years, 94%
  • Add random special characters “(A$t3R0!d)”: 4.92 million years, 100%

Sites to check your password strength:
Wolfram Alpha
Password Meter

Reference:
PC Mag Article

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