Combat Hackers by Strengthening Your Passwords
The Benefits of Strong Passwords: Why Length is Key
We’ve all heard the same advice before: Come up with a strong password that includes at least one capital letter, one number, and one symbol. While this may provide some protection against casual snoops, it’s not robust enough to protect us from more determined attackers. The length of your password plays a far bigger role in its strength than the complexity and choosing a unique password with over 12 characters provides you with numerous advantages.
When it comes to stronger passwords, length is key because it increases the entropy (or randomness) of information used to protect our data. A longer password also increases “brute force resistance” which means it takes longer for an attacker to guess your passwords by trying every possible combination of characters until they get it right! This type of attack is commonly known as "brute force" and hackers use sophisticated algorithms in order to try billions or even trillions of combinations quickly.
In 2007, Microsoft admitted eight-character passwords were no longer secure—a realization many cybersecurity professionals already knew and the research behind this discovery concluded that the best defense was a 12-character minimum when choosing a new password or changing an existing one.
Having at least a twelve-character password gives you two major advantages; first, they make brute force attacks much more difficult since there are exponentially more permutations available for cracking; second, they can be almost impossible to guess due to their length and complexity as well as resistant to renewal using dictionary words as components—including modern day character replacements such as replacing ‘@’ with ‘a’ or ‘$'with '5'.
Furthermore, hackers have developed other techniques for obtaining passwords such as phishing scams where users are tricked into giving away confidential information through malicious emails and links online. Additionally, malicious actors can buy stolen credentials from underground markets or hack poorly secured databases holding personal data.
Once hackers can obtain login details, they can gain unauthorized access into accounts and potentially inflict dozens of types of harm upon users — including stealing money from linked banking services/accounts, accessing sensitive documents/photos/videos stored on devices/networks associated with that user account, reading emails sent between parties without detection, etc. Which is why having solid security protocols in place has become essential in today's world.
In addition to length requirements for stronger passwords — we now have additional techniques at our disposal for further protection against cyberattacks — multi-factor authentication (MFA). This type of authentication requires users to enter two different types of credentials when logging into their account — something you know like a password plus something you have such as an authenticator app running on your smartphone/tablet.
With MFA enabled alongside regularly updated and complex credentials (12 characters or higher) then your accounts will remain protected against potential threats both online and off.
Overall, ensuring that our online accounts remain safe requires us all to stay educated on modern practices surrounding digital security — especially those concerning the use of strong passwords. Research shows that 8–10-character passwords simply aren't sufficient anymore and require revision if one wants maximum protection against targeted attacks. By opting for 12 or more characters in both your login structures and passcodes — combined with MFA when possible — then you can rest assured knowing your data remains all but impervious from outside forces attempting access without authorization!