Can I Guess Your Password?
We’ve addressed this before and have decided it’s worth repeating. You NEED to use strong passwords.
Don’t Believe Me?
In December, a security breach at RockYou resulted in a list of 32 million passwords being posted online for the world to see. Haven’t heard of RockYou? They develop a lot of the software applications that run on FaceBook and MySpace. What’s really scary is that analysts scoured the list and determined that the most commonly used passwords are quite simple - and easy to guess. Check out this New York Times article to learn more - If Your Password is 123456, Just Make It HackMe.
So What’s a Secure Password?
A password is considered complex if it meets the following minimum requirements:
- It is at least six characters in length.
- It contains characters from three out of the following four categories:
- Uppercase English characters (A through Z)
- Lowercase English characters (a through z)
- Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
- Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !, $, #, %)