The #1 way a hacker will get you is…

by | IT Security Tips

A weak password is still one of the most common ways hackers break in.

Thanks to sophisticated brute-force-attack software readily available online, hackers can try tens of millions of possible password combinations per second. For example, hacking software can guess a five-character password in under three hours. If you only use lowercase letters, it’s 11.9 seconds.

You KNOW you need to have a better password than “password” or “letmein” if you have any hope of keeping hackers out of your PC, but what does a “strong” password mean?

A good password should be at least eight characters long (or longer!) and have a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols that are hard to guess. Don’t use dictionary words with proper capitalization because they’re easy to guess (like Password123#). Even though it meets the requirements we just discussed, it’s easily hacked; remember, hackers have sophisticated password-hacking software that will run 24/7/365.

Would you like more tips like this delivered right to your inbox? Click Here

IT Security Tips

Did you know?

Did you know?

How important is computer and cyber security? Let’s take a look at some facts to put it in perspective. Did you know...

Two-factor what?

Two-factor what?

Two-factor authentication (2FA for short), sometimes called multi-factor authentication, is a system in which you must...

Lie, lie, lie!

Lie, lie, lie!

Social engineering is big business. What is it? Figuring out who you are and then using that information to make money...