Strength in Numbers…and Letters

June, 2011

In this day and age, convenience is king – you can shop for clothes in your kitchen, collect CDs with the click of a mouse, and pay all your bills from the comfort of your own bed – all thanks to the Internet.

People often tell me how much faster and easier both their business and personal lives have become due to the recent boom in technology. However, with any benefit, there is always a cost associated with it as well. Because of the ease of access, everything must be protected with passwords – your work computer, home computer, bank account, electricity bill, Facebook, email, twitter… the list goes on and on!

So how do we cope with Password Overload Syndrome? Most people can be put into one of the following categories:

1.   The Overachiever. The Overachiever wants to ensure they’re protected at the maximum level possible so they create complicated and lengthy passwords like R2X!z13fjH7 for each of their different accounts. Of course the problem arises when they go to check their accounts and cannot remember the complicated concoction they came up with.

2.   The Repeat Offender. The Repeat Offender comes up with one moderately safe password like @pples72 but then uses that same password for every one of his or her accounts.

3.   The C Student. The C Student uses a different password for each account but each password is so weak that they might as well not have one at all! Things like “password” or “abc123” are favorites among C Student password Creators.

“Ok” you may say to yourself, “But are strong passwords really so important that an entire article is needed on the subject? It’s not like I’m a millionaire, or have lots of secrets that need protecting. And even if I was, I just can’t keep up with a zillion different passwords, so I haveto take the route of the Overachiever/Repeat Offender/ C Student!”

I am here to tell you. No. You don’t.

First, strong passwords are more important than you think. Check out this scenario:

Dr. John is fresh out of medical school and decides to be hip and cool and creates a Facebook page with the password JØhn! A few months later Dr. John gets hired at a prestigious hospital and protects his work computer with the same password so as to not forget his login for either account.

Suzy, John’s arch enemy, decides she’s going to get even because John got the job she wanted, so she hacks John’s Facebook account since it has less secure safety features. She then uses the password she found to hack into John’s work account where she proceeds to post the individual conditions of each and every one of John’s clients on the World Wide Web. This scenario, although slightly exaggerated, is much more common you think – when using one password for multiple accounts, it becomes very easy for a hacker to start small, get all the information they need from a site like Facebook, and then break into something more difficult like your private email, work account or bank account. So it’s not just an annoying situation, but one that could cost you your job.

Still don’t believe me? Check out the chart below to really see what the difference between a strong and weak password can mean:

PASSWORD LENGTH	ALL CHARACTERS (ABC,abc, 123, !%$)	ONLY LOWERCASE
3 characters 4 characters 5 characters 6 characters 7 characters 8 characters 9 characters 10 characters	0.86 seconds 1.36 minutes 2.15 hours 8.51 days 2.21 years 2.10 centuries 20 millennia 1,899 millennia	0.02 seconds .046 seconds 11.9 seconds 5.15 minutes 2.23 hours 2.42 days 2.07 months 4.48 years

* All time denotes the amount of time it would take for the password to be hacked

By now you’re probably thinking “I get that passwords are important, but that doesn’t help me when it comes time to memorize them all!” Well have no fear! Below are a few tips to help you create a balance between having a strongand memorable password:

• Use numbers or symbols in the place of letters to make the password more complicated to hack: Alaska becomes A1@sk@.
• Make sure passwords are at least 7 characters long – that one extra character means the difference between your account getting hacked in a few days or a few years.
• Come up with a word or phrase that you think of when logging into a specific site. For example, when you log into Facebook, use a password like Fr1ends! But when you log into your bank account use something like $ecur1ty.
• If you are required to use longer passwords, or change your password often, try using a phrase rather than a word, as this is often easier to remember. Try using a stanza from your favorite new song of the month, or a memorable quote from a movie.

As you can see, there are many key elements involved in creating a strong password.  Just remember, there’s strength in numbers and letters. So be sure to mix it up, make it memorable, and make your money unobtainable to all the hackers out there!