Mine is usually at least 32 characters long, however, I use special characters that require additional steps to even enter. My login info often has special characters in the usernames too, and I do two-part authentication on top of it, when possible.
Something like TheD@g▐fl▀▀over♀♪the╣▄█house1! τ┌┼╢$
I have never used this one, it is just an example.How secure is yours? maybe I'm over doing it a little bit, but I don't think anyone can be too secure. I do run into programming limitations though, where it won't allow them to be that long or have special characters.
How secure are you online and how complex are your passwords?
That's a great post to bring attention to digital security which is important but so overlooked. I try and extend your post by almost copying and pasting stuff from the internet, you can google "general security advice" yourself. But if you're lazy like me, reading this is better than nothing.
It's generally good to use a password manager which creates and instantly saves randomly generated passwords for each app/website that you register to, and then it has a master password to unlock the password manager itself. Your phone may have one built in, which integrates with apps and automatically suggests you passwords when registering and then fills in your login info from the password manager when logging in, and its master password is the screen lock itself. Google Chrome browser has one of these. If your phone doesn't have a password manager outside of the browser, you can still install one but it may need a little copying and pasting each time. I guess LastPass is a good one.
Don't use the same password for different apps/websites.
Don't try to create password yourself as they might or might not turn out good. Actual words like "car" or even "c4r", Everest or "6v6/6$t" in your password are weak against dictionary attacks in which there's a dictionary of all words and their alternative forms, and a computer tries all of them very quickly to find out which one works.
For two factor authentication you can use Google Authenticator or other authenticator apps. Big social networking platforms like Instagram have the" two factor authentication" feature which you can find in their settings, probably under security. It's easy to use, basically Instagram asks you for an additional code other than password which you can find in the authenticator app and it gets updated every minute or so. I guess it's generated based on your specific phone and account, so other people can't have it even if they have your password.
Also sharing your passwords with anybody isn't really necessary.
Other than that, check for updates regularly both for the device itself and for your apps, or just put it on automatic update.
Don't click on the links which you don't know what they are, especially the ones in your received emails and messages and texts and stuff.
Don't root or jailbreak your device.
Install apps only from the official app store of your device like Google Play.
"a low-budget password cracker like we have here at the office can guess any 8-character password in only about 8 hours. So even the strongest eight-character password isn’t very strong.
The article goes on to say that the character complexity is not as important as using unique characters the way you do. Though I would say the unique ANSI characters you use are great and if it's no trouble to you, then keep on using them.
I typically use Apple's password generator, which creates an original 20 character password, which is saved automatically to the keychain app. Given the increased complexity beyond the 12 character, "61 years to crack" password, I think that's plenty, even given that computers continue to have better and better processing power as the years go by.
I read another article, which I wanted to find, I want to say it was written by xkcd. com but I'm not 100% on that. It said many of the same things the linked article above says, but gave more metrics. It also touched on the idea of cloud or quantum computing, which could be exponentially better than our current systems. The article promoted the use of simple to remember random words, and emphasized length over complexity. For example: "jalapeñoquincerocketcondom" is a stronger password than "hOp3♀@1kA♪m" because it's longer.
Sometimes the Apple program won't auto-fill and I have to come up with my own passwords. In these cases, I just come up with something longer than 14 characters and feel confident it is strong enough. I also add a number and the standard <shift> 0-9 special characters as a habit because almost every website and app requires it. I have wondered though, if a hacker KNOWS that at least one of your characters HAS to be capitalized and/or a special character, doesn't that make your password LESS secure than if it might or might not contain those things and keep the hacker guessing?
Yeah I don't memorize passwords, I memorize phrases and keystrokes with the ansi characters mixed in. I am aware longer is better, than more complex as many websites don't allow special characters. I just want to be as secure as possible, even using extra authentication that requires a emailed or texted code on top of it.
Only for websites that matter though, if it is garbage like rewards to a fast food place, don't give a damn.
@aerissa_jade yeah I would say pretty much all the financial apps I use have 2 factor authentication now, where even with my Face ID or password, I still have to enter a second code to ensure security.
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I don't use passwords because I don't have any programs that require any.
I have no credit cards, I am not a member of any social media, I don't do online purchases, I go personally to the bank to retrieve money and show my ID card, I don't have any personal email address nor do I log into any government web page.
In short, I am (almost) invisible to society and marketing specialists have a real hard time keeping a tab on me. The only spam I see is the one on GaG. That is enough for me.
Of course, the one or the other will ask me how I log onto GaG. My brother created an email account that is solely used for GaG. I do not know the password and I do not use that email address for anything else. I also have a school email address that is solely used for education issues.
Using those non standard charachters must be a total pain.
So many people do not give digital security the attention it deserves.
I personally use an algorithm based on the name of the website plus a pre determined set of random charachters. I can remember almost limitless passwords that look incredibly complicated and I never have to write any of them down.
My rules are:
Use at least 12 charachters Avoid dictionary words Avoid simple letter/number substitutions such as A and 4, 5 and S, etc. Never use the same password for more than one site Never use a password manager (get access to that and you're screwed)
I memorize key strokes not passwords, and its only a pain on mobile devices on my PC I can log in pretty fast. Some mobile devices I haven't even figured out how to log in with them.
I use the same password for every single account, EXCEPT I change the ending of it. For example, for GAG, it might be something like TurtleshellGirl, and for Amazon, it might be TurtleshellAM. (Not that that's my actual password; it's an example.) This allows me to remember them all, while still being secure. And if a website has one of those annoying f*cking "capitals, lowercase, numbers, and a symbol, and at least ten digits long" bullsh*t, then I just don't sign up for the f*cking website, then! I HATE those! Also, for important stuff, like my bank account app, I don't do this.
Yeah, I know it's "bad" to use a variation of a master password, but I don't care. I have 207 f*cking accounts! I'm not going to put in something like TheD@g▐fl▀▀over♀♪the╣▄█house1! τ┌┼╢$ for some bullsh*t like GAG or ColorImagePicker. com. It's insane how many websites over-value their worth. I can see banking or financial sites requiring you to deal with this complicated password crap, but I'm not Elon Musk and stealing my identity would be a waste of time.
The very WORST one had to be my university password, which they forced us to change every two months.
LOOK AT THIS F*CKIN' SH*T! Twenty f*ckin' digits! That bottom part is a lie, too. Still requires three combinations.
You know what's funny about this, is if it is some pointless account, they often allow really complex passwords but my mortgage company (before they sold it to another one) wouldn't even allow anything but numbers and letters and capped it at 12 characters... so no @ or ! or anything like that... Just caps and numbers... for a freaking mortgage company.
Yet I can have ultra long and complex for something that if it got hacked, I'd be like whatever, I'll make a new account.
I did manage to mess up a certain unnamed banks website though by putting in a complex password that after I set it up, would not let me log in. Two hours later of support they told me I caused the system to loop by having a special character they never though of. The password reset part was stuck in a loop for anyone trying to reset their passwords. Those who didn't need to, could log in fine but you were out of luck if you were trying to reset one during that time.
Bad coding at its finest, to allow a special character that can cause that.
I've experienced in college that a LOT of IT and computer security people are absolute morons. Their solution to not getting your car broken in, would be to put three locks on the door, while ignoring the window. That's essentially the equivalent of complicated passwords. You can make the most complicated password in existence, but then just check your browser or Google Smart Password for the saved cookie data itself, which just boggles my mind. Why make a complicated password if you can just save it to cookies?
You know what else is absolutely moronic? Pre-set security questions, that anyone who knows you could easily figure out, Google or not. Your mother's maiden name, the street you grew up in, your hometown, the name of your first (and potentially only) pet, the name of your man of honor, your favorite sports team... It's SO f*cking stupid to me that these people think this is "cyber security." As for those questions, most of them don't even apply to me, which just leaves me thinking which non-applicable question do I pick a made-up answer for.
For those pre-set questions, I don't use real stuff... my mothers maiden name could be something like "D@gShit! kind of like a password, so no one who knows me... or the street I grew up on rather than the real name would be like Cheesecake or something like that.
Considering the questions are heavily biased toward upper middle class, married, First World people who have things like a mother in law, wedding day, and a third child, I don't use real info either. But you make a good point in that the people who make the questions DO want people to use real info.
I would never use one that's just random letters and numbers because I wouldn't remember it. So all mine are something I will remember right away. So more basic than not. And I've never had a problem, even when my old password was so called 'compromised' yet no one logged into any of my accounts with it. Sure it was just them saying you need to change it because you've had it for a while than a breach.
I memorize keystrokes, not the actual password. If that makes any sense... hold down alt and type these three numbers, etc... so even if it is 32 digits, to enter it is at least twice that. I have been hacked before, I've logged into online banking and the last login was not me.
At the time I had a ton of money in there too, so good thing I logged in before someone figured out how to take it.
Stupidly complex with several numeric key code characters in them. Thanks to working in network security and finding out just how many people use a variation of the world password for a password to everything, my ocd and annoyance started to kick in. So my password started getting more random and complex. Trying to not hit a point where they can not be complex enough.
tbh even hackers will find it difficult if you just create a password Myc4T (45*$ , to be honest the brute force technique used by hackers is very unlikely to work and you also have to know if you want to use the BRUTE Force technique you also have to make a WORDLIST, thousands of words or millions
thanks for the likes, actually what I'm more worried about is not about weak passwords but about security when using wifi and malicious files like BACKDOOR on your device,
on average hackers manage to hack through those 2 methods, rarely use brute force attacks.
BACKDOOR is very dangerous and can even take over your camera and microphone.
I don't memorize the password, I memorize key strokes to enter it. So like a short one could be ALT 222 which then brings up ▐ followed by a word, Doggie1! (or something like that) and then something like alt 223 ▀. That password would be ▐Doggie1!▀ then I tie different short phrases together, like my example was "the dog flew over the house" with special characters mixed in.
Since I memorize key strokes I don't need to memorize the actual password. I will say I can't log into stuff on my phone, very easily, which is probably a good thing, cause phones can get hacked so easy.
My passwords are usually at least 10 characters with upper, & lower case letters, numbers, and at least 3 nonstandard characters like ¥, #…, ä, and œ! But my dad is a computer programmer, so he taught me how to best secure my online accounts!
That's overkill. It's already not feasible to bruteforce a 12+ character password with symbols, now you're just making it more obnoxious for yourself to enter.
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I have many different passwords. They are at least 10 characters with numbers and upper case letters. I have a couple of long phrases I use as as well. I try to change them frequently.
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Secure enough to not worry but if I do one so long like that then I can’t remember it or want to write it down and need the computer to remember it which isn’t ideal if I’m using another device
I usually use movie quotes with the first letter. For example y3pd1bmn@y5ak&ay53k. The 1 is I, 5 is S and the 3 is e. That's a quote from a movie, or as much as I can remember.
Even if someone bruteforces you it would just be along time but they can still get in no matter what the password is cause it's not a dictionary attack
I don't go overboard on passwords I just don't do a lot of things to make it easy for scammers don't use phone to buy stuff always check the bank and charge cards people should not leave themselves open to scams
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