TECHNOLOGY NEWS & TIPS

Best Practice- Creating a New Password

Nov. 2006 - In this case bigger is better. There are many ways unwanted intruders ‘crack’ passwords. The most obvious is reading that little sticky paper “hiding” under your keyboard with your password written on it. Or by typing in your child’s/pet’s/spouce’s name, which account for 50% of all passwords.
The other method these intruders will use is software cracking programs. These programs use advanced algorithms to figure out your password by using a dictionary or brute force method. The dictionary method will generally crack any password that is found in a dictionary within 30 seconds. Even if you add a few numbers at the end or even substitute numbers for letters (i.e. spring or spring06 or spr1ng06), it will only prolong the inevitable.

The brute force method will keep pounding and pounding away until it defeats the cryptographic scheme. This method takes much longer, but if your password is under 12 characters and your potential intruder has a lot of time on his hands, your password will be cracked. The best passwords to use are really a combination: Greater than 12 characters, using phrases rather than a single word, changing capitalization and substitute numbers/symbols for letters.

E becomes 3
g becomes 9
l becomes 1
B becomes 8
A becomes 4

So now:
Apple becomes 4pp13

Even better:
Appleofmyeye becomes 4pp130fmY3Y3

Crack that!