Are Your Passwords Strong Enough?

Most people say their passwords are strong. In actuality, most people's passwords are very weak. For example, check out this article about the passwords from the Ashley Madison hack here. A look at the top 5 passwords users on the website had in place:

1) 12345

2) password

3) 12345

4) qwerty

5) 12345678

Don't believe this extrapolates to the general population? Check out this article from Huffpo here. In this article, they list the most common passwords in 2016. Look at the top 5 passwords:

1) 123456

2) 123456789

3) qwerty

4) 12345678

5) 111111

Needless to say, when hackers attempt to "hack" your account, typically they will start with these common passwords. If you are using these passwords or any on the Huffpo list, you need to change them immediately. All the passwords above are called weak passwords. You want to use strong passwords for all of your online and work accounts. Here are some strong password best practices:

Characteristics of strong passwords:

1) Use at least 12 characters if permitted. The longer the better.

2) Use upper and lower case alphabetic letters, numbers and symbols (!@#$%^&*()\) if possible.

3) Use a random password generator. Google "random password generator" and find one you like.

4) Do not use the same password for all of your accounts.

5) Avoid the following: repeating characters, patterns on the keyboard, common words, your username, your pet's name, spouse's name, or your social security number

6) Do not write down your passwords.

For an example, I went to www.passwordsgenerator.net and generated a password. It allows you to specify the number of characters, symbols, etc. Here is the password it generated for me: AuJg+-47vhjz. Obviously I will not be using this password, but this is a good example of what a strong password looks like.

Did I forget any strong password best practices? Please leave a comment so others will benefit from the sharing of knowledge!