Is Your Password Uncrackable?
Hack-proofing your passwords is an absolutely essential business practice, especially if you are a small or mid-sized business (SMB). Did you know that more than 75% of data breaches occurred at SMBs? Small businesses are major targets, with more than 80% being targets of opportunities.
A University of Cambridge study found that 90% of passwords are hackable. Try to make your passwords in the 10% of uncrackable passwords.
For example:
- PrttyTough8 – will take 5000 years to crack
- &Tgh2Crck! – will take 3 months to crack
Tips to keeping your password safe:
- use your business passwords for work only. Don't reuse your work password on an external website, email, or bank account
- avoid predictable and common passwords. Choose a phrase that you can remember, and add in the required characters – capital letters and numbers. You can try removing the vowels of easy to remember words i.e. privacy = prvcy
- Use more characters. The longer the password, the harder it is to crack!
For more information on making your password stronger, check out the blog post Password Safety in a Connected World by McAfee Vice President Gary Davis.