Do your passwords consist of a short word with a few numbers and punctuation marks? That’s not as safe as you might think. On this Change Your Passwords Day we ask for tips from Shaireen Abdoulrahamani, the information and security specialist at Omroep Brabant.
“Many people find it difficult to come up with a good password,” notes Abdoulrahamani. “That’s why people often choose something short and simple. Or something that resembles their previous password.”
But short passwords are very easy to crack, despite capital letters and punctuation. That is why, according to the information specialist, choosing a long password is more important than frequently changing your passwords.
“Suppose you choose a password consisting of eight characters: then this password can be hacked within five minutes.”
How is that possible? A hacker makes a computer create combinations of letters, numbers and characters. This happens very quickly. With a password with few characters, the solution can be found in a few minutes.
“Make your passwords longer or use a passphrase.”
Fortunately, you can do something about this. The most important thing according to Abdoulrahamani? “Make your passwords longer and use passphrases.”
She gives an example: “A password consisting of sixteen digits takes at least an hour to crack. If you do not use numbers, but sixteen lowercase letters, this will probably take a hacker at least 700 years.”
The question that remains: how do you remember a password of sixteen characters? “The passphrase is useful for this,” the information expert explains. “You’re less likely to forget a sentence and you don’t have to replace it as often.”
“A password manager on your own phone is also safe.”
A password vault is useful to store all your passwords or passphrases. “Such an online safe stores all your passwords. You only remember the main password,” Abdoulrahamani explains.
There are many options available online, she says. “A password manager on your own phone is also safe. It often works with facial recognition or your fingerprint.”