How to create the perfect password

When building websites for our clients, ensuring proper cyber security protocols are adhered to is of the utmost importance. That’s why SOS Creativity is Cyber Essentials Certified. Out Bolton web design and Bolton SEO services provide full peace of mind in the knowledge that cyber security best practice is adhered to at all times.  

So, how do you create the perfect password? What are some of the key details you should be aware of? 

What makes a good password? 

Some of the most common passwords are password, 12345, and pa55w0rd. Having a secure password is important, helping keep your personal info safe, protecting your emails, files, and helping prevent people from accessing your account.  

A strong password must be easily memorable for you yet exceptionally difficult for somebody else to guess. Ideally, your password should be impossible to guess outside of brute-force attempts. As such, you should avoid personal and common words and avoid choosing passwords that could easily be guessed by people who know you or those looking at your social media profiles. 

3 ways your passwords could be compromised 

There are numerous ways that your password could be compromised, including but not limited to brute force attacks, dictionary attacks, and recent password attacks.  

Brute force attack 

Brute force attacks work using trial and error; by working through a logical plan and testing every possible combination, eventually, the password will be cracked and access granted. This method of attack is very slow but will be successful if given enough time. Hackers using this tactic will often use computerised bots to input passwords far quicker than a human could type them, which considerably speeds up the process. 

If you're curious about how secure your password is against a brute force attack, numerous online calculators allow you to measure your password against such attacks. For example, if you choose the dessert "cake" as your password, it will take a slow online attack of fewer than 10 minutes to crack your password, but more sophisticated cracking software could do so in less than a second. In comparison, "jidehufrmkcdnjvf" on a sophisticated massive cracking scenario with one hundred trillion guesses per second would take over ten years to crack the password. 

Dictionary attack 

A dictionary attack works like a brute force attack; instead of methodically trying every possible combination, it systematically enters every word found in a dictionary as a password. Whilst it may seem hard to guess, setting your passwords as your two favourite foods (for example) “pizzaicecream” could be guessed through a dictionary attack. As such, it’s important to make sure that your password avoids using words frequent in dictionaries whenever possible. 

Recent password attacks 

Whereas brute force attacks methodically try every possible combination, and dictionary attacks use a dictionary to try every word combination, recent password attacks use a library of compromised passwords to try and gain access to an account. This is why it is important to use different passwords for each account and try your best to make your passwords unique to yourself. For example, in 2021, the National Crime Agency and National Cyber Crime Unit found a library of 225 million unexposed stolen passwords. This shocking statistic stresses the importance of frequently changing your passwords and ensuring that your computer systems are protected with good-quality online security software. 

5 tips for a strong password 

Creating a strong password is about making it as close to impossible to crack as reasonably attainable. Brute force attacks will, in theory, crack any password; however, if your password takes over 100 years to break by a dedicated botnet, it's reasonable to assume that your password is safe outside of a hacker’s lucky guess. 

To help you create a strong password, here's a list of 5 quick tips from award-winning Bolton web design company SOS Creativity. 

Choose a long password 

Generally speaking, the longer your password, the stronger it is. Ideally, your password should be 12 characters or longer. Also, consider using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. 

Do not reuse passwords 

Regarding the above-mentioned recent password attacks, you mustn't reuse passwords; reusing passwords or using passwords for multiple accounts increases your risk. Make sure that all your passwords are unique, and to the best of your ability, do not reuse previous passwords in case one was previously compromised without your knowledge. 

Securely store any written passwords 

Having multiple passwords across different accounts can be difficult and hard to remember; some people resort to writing down their passwords. If you need to write down passwords, either thoroughly encrypt the digital file with a very strong encryption key or write them down on a physical piece of paper and store it in a locked safe. 

Try the sentence method 

Remembering passwords can be difficult; the sentence method is one trick to remembering a long and hard-to-guess password. For example, take the sentence "I went to Green Hill Secondary School". By taking this sentence and using every other letter, we get the password “IetoreHlScnaycol" this uses a mixture of both upper and lower case letters and makes no sense to anyone other than the person who created the password. The sentence itself is easy to remember, and using every other letter is easy to remember; as such, this complex and ‘seemingly random’ password is, in fact, easy for you to remember. 

Use a password manager 

Whilst the sentence method can be a great technique to remember a single hard-to-guess password, it can be impractical for those who need to remember 30+ different passwords. This is where password managers can be very useful. They can create complex passwords and store them digitally and held under encryption. You only have to remember a single password, the password to your password manager, which you can make very complex and remember using the sentence method. 

Cyber Essentials Certified web design in Bolton – SOS Creativity 

As a Bolton web design agency, we have the flexibility to help you achieve your goals within a digital environment. As a business, being Cyber Essentials Certified provides us with a clear picture of our cyber security level. It also lets us reassure our clients that our IT systems are secure against the most common and frequent cyber security attacks. 

We're skilled in multiple open-source platforms, including Magento and WordPress, and a team of digital marketing experts. We have a proven history of success, delivering websites and SEO services for clients from various industries. If you're interested in learning more about our services or how our Cyber Essentials Certified business can help you, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

To speak to an associate, please call 0800 999 1339 or email info@soscreativity.co.uk.