Five steps to a truely secure password

The Heartbleed bug, a major internet security
flaw, had businesses scrambling to change
their passwords recently. But now the dust is
starting to settle, it’s time for organisations
to create strong passwords which will have
the best chance of protecting their
information.
In the era of Big Data, erecting a strong
security wall has become more important
than ever, and a password is a business’ first
line of defence. Here are Intermedia’s five
top tips for creating a strong password.
1. Go BEYOND the “8 character wall.”
Passwords with 8 or fewer characters are
worthless. Even though there are zillions of
password combinations, a determined hacker
with a botnet (or even a legal cloud
computing platform) at his or her disposal
can crack it in seconds. Make it 12
characters, and it suddenly takes far more
resources and time than the hacker will
deem it worth. To see for yourself, check
this out.
2. Create UNIQUE passwords. One for every
site. Hackers love going after innocuous sites
because they know that people often use the
same password across more valuable sites,
like their online banking. Plan for the
eventuality that one of your accounts will be
breached - never use the same password
twice.
3. Get VERY creative. Take a look at this list
of the 100 most common passwords found in
a batch stolen from Adobe. If your password
is on there - or more importantly, if your
password is even barely recognisable as
English – it isn’t secure enough.
4. Religiously change passwords every six
months. Assume that one of the sites you use
will be hacked - the best protection is to
habitually change your passwords.
5. Use a secure password management
service to simplify your life. These services
enable you to manage passwords from one
location. By using computer-generated
passwords, a password management service
will create one that isn’t in the top 100
million of human-made passwords. What’s
more, the service will automatically change
passwords for you and store them in an
encrypted wallet. The only snag is that
forgetting the master password can mean
you’re locked out – but that’s a small price
to pay for your security.