Is Your Password As Strong As You Think?

Passwords are the keys to unlock your service doors in the online world. There are lots of doors each one of us unlock every day to gain entry. Most of us use the same password for all our services, which not only makes our life simple but also the job of a hacker very easy.

“Importance of the data is gauged by the complexity of your password.”

We set our password so simple like password@123 and still expect our account to be left untouched. Whenever you are asked to set a password, just think for a moment how important the data is to you and then set the password accordingly.

Try playing around with the below websites that can analyze and point out if your password is strong or weak. Though none of the below websites store the passwords you test, you are strongly advised not use your actual passwords on these sites. Use these websites to improve your password creation process.

For demonstration purposes I have used the below password in all the below websites and results are provided as screenshots for your reference.

mK$/7-8*9=vA~(4r!

1) How Secure Is My Password

This website takes your password as input and gives you the time that a desktop PC would take to crack your password. Based on the strength of your password the background of the website also changes.

2) Password Meter

This website provides a score and complexity level for the passwords you key in. The spontaneous visual feedback that the system provides can help you to try different password combinations and fine tune them if required.

3) Microsoft Password Checker

The Microsoft Safety & Security Centre provides a simple password checker to gauge the strength of your password online.

4) Intel Password Checker

The greatest Chip Makers have dedicated a page just to educate the users to improve their password strengths. Feel free to try it once.

5) Password Checker Online

Online Domain Tools has various tools to cover the areas like Network, Web and Browser, Data Conversion etc. The Password Checker can be found under Security and Privacy Tools.

It provides you more details in three sections

• Password Properties – displays your password length, charset size, etc.,
• Brute-force cracking time – lists different types of machines and the estimated time to crack your password.
• Dictionary attack check – you can check if your password is safe from dictionary attack.

6) Password Strength Calculator

This website doesn’t need your password instead you just have to enter your password length and the type of characters that your password contains. Try playing around with the length of password and see the difference in the results for yourself.

7) Rumkin Strength Test

A simple web based tool to check your password strength. The website also provides an offline copy in compressed format (size: 34KB) for you to test your passwords and use it in your site.

So what’s next?

There are lots of things you have to keep in mind when you create your password. I have just touch based a few of them below that should get you started.

DO’s

• Choose a password whose length is greater than 16.
• Use both lower and upper case characters, numbers and special characters.
• When you create a password treat space bar as a key too.

DONT’s

• Never use the one-for-all concept when it comes to passwords. Use different passwords for each service that you use.
• Never include or use any of your personal details for your Password. For example avoid using your Name or any of your family member names, birth/anniversary dates, etc.
• Never include or use meaningful words (dictionary words) for your password.

So how strong are you passwords? What are the techniques that you employ to create a strong password?