How secure is your password?

[LONDONER]

This is a very useful link that should help you choose a safe password:

http://howsecureismypassword.net/

[Woollyhats]

It would take twelve trillion years to crack my password. I'm okay with that.

[MisterTinkles]

HA HA.

It would take 11 hours to crack my passwords.

I did some "testing" on that though......it seems if you have at least 10 letters/digits in your password, it would take more than 500 years to crack it on a desktop PC.

Although they did not explain HOW a desktop PC could crack these passwords.

I might change all my passwords to at least 10 characters though.

[MisterTinkles]

It would take twelve trillion years to crack my password. I'm okay with that.

Unless you entered your REAL password, then they have it!!!

SUCKAH!!!!


JK

[Ekwarph]

I think it's one kind of algorithm. There are some much more performant ones than this one.

The most important thing to do is putting at least one special character, one letter in caps, one number.
The algorithms to crack codes become more complex since the possibility field gets wider.

I don't know that much about it, but I think some algorithms incorporate dictionnaries, so avoid words that actually mean something, and I'm sure some incorporate statistic datas (sweep all birth days for example snce it's frequent) so try to be original :biggrin:

[partis]

Not very secure… its really simple

[MisterTinkles]

Well, I know some "tricks" on creating passwords-

If you use dates, such as birthdays - use the numbers in reverse or align them in sequential order.
example: Bday 4/26/1962 would be 2691624

If you use standard names or words - spell them backwards.
example: I love Mr Tinkles would be selknitrmevoli

Misspell or abbreviate words - such as use a 'K' instead of a 'C'.
example: rocket would be rokkit or rokket

If you use a word and a date together, stagger them together.
example: L4O2N6D1O9N6E2R


In my last job, I had a coworker who had an exboyfriend who kept hacking into her facebook account and messing with her stuff and posting stuff to her friends that she did not post.
She asked me what she could do, so I told her to use words and numbers that he wouldnt have any concept of.

To give her an example, I asked her what foods she hated. She said she hates onions.
Then I asked her what it the least used number she knows....whether it be a date or a phone number or a street number. She gave me someones birth year, that her boyfriend did not know.

So I gave her this example to use when making a new password--
OnionLover1983

She hasnt had a problem with him hacking her account since.

[LONDONER]

This site was recommended by the BBC's "Click" programme and the actual site says:

This site could be stealing your password... it's not, but it easily could be. Be careful where you type your password.

However, it could help to see how easily a potential password could be cracked or not. So for instance, I put in a potential password and the answer came back

It would take a desktop PC about 967 years to crack your password

[LONDONER]

Well, I know some "tricks" on creating passwords-

If you use dates, such as birthdays - use the numbers in reverse or align them in sequential order.
example: Bday 4/26/1962 would be 2691624

If you use standard names or words - spell them backwards.
example: I love Mr Tinkles would be selknitrmevoli

Misspell or abbreviate words - such as use a 'K' instead of a 'C'.
example: rocket would be rokkit or rokket

If you use a word and a date together, stagger them together.
example: L4O2N6D1O9N6E2R


In my last job, I had a coworker who had an exboyfriend who kept hacking into her facebook account and messing with her stuff and posting stuff to her friends that she did not post.
She asked me what she could do, so I told her to use words and numbers that he wouldnt have any concept of.

To give her an example, I asked her what foods she hated. She said she hates onions.
Then I asked her what it the least used number she knows....whether it be a date or a phone number or a street number. She gave me someones birth year, that her boyfriend did not know.

So I gave her this example to use when making a new password--
OnionLover1983

She hasn't had a problem with him hacking her account since.

Secure passwords should always be alphanumeric, i.e., they should contain a mixture of letters and numbers and in addition to that, the letters should be a mixture of upper and lower case. To be even safer, incorporate one or two non standard characters. For instance, I use a Spanish keyboard so I could use (but don't) one of these: ¿, a character not immediately available on a standard QUERTY keyboard.

[MisterTinkles]

Secure passwords should always be alphanumeric, i., they should contain a mixture of letters and numbers and in addition to that, the letters should be a mixture of upper and lower case. To be even safer, incorporate one or two non standard characters. For instance, I use a Spanish keyboard so I could use (but don't) one of these: ¿, a character not immediately available on a standard QUERTY keyboard.

A lot of US systems/programs still do not accept characters other than letters and numbers. So, if you have some special character in your password or even email, some systems wont accept it.