In today's day and age when practically everything is digital, we deal with the word password every now and then. Generally, a password is a string of characters that may include alphabets, numbers and symbols, which may vary in length to access something, like a bank account, and prevent others from accessing it. A password generator helps you to generate a secure and strong password, thereby protecting your account from cyber attacks and hackers. Given that the ‘work from home’ paradigm may become a routine part of our work environment, every individual should change passwords very frequently.
It is very important to ensure that the password you set is very strong so as to prevent any guesses or against brute force attacks, where every possibility is tested. The complexity, length and unpredictability determine the strength of the password and how easy it would be for someone to correctly guess it. For instance, if a person has his name, birthday, car numberplate or other personal information that is public as his password, then it qualifies as a weak password.
Password Strength
One should avoid using common passwords that are available on the internet like 123456, PASSWORD, qwerty. To create a strong password you need to follow certain rules which fall under these categories:
Password length must be of minimum 8 characters if not more
Password Entropy
We have heard of entropy in the Thermodynamics chapter in Physics; however, when it comes to passwords, entropy determines the strength of the password. It is measured in bits, if the entropy is high, the password is strong, and it becomes that much more difficult for anyone to guess it. Hence, one should set a very strong password so that in the case of a brute force attack it will take several millions of years to guess it. If a password entropy is 200 bits then it would require at least 4200 attempts to guess it.
Password Management
Apart from a strong password, you also need to manage it properly. Follow the guidelines below for proper password management.
It is very important to ensure that the password you set is very strong so as to prevent any guesses or against brute force attacks, where every possibility is tested. The complexity, length and unpredictability determine the strength of the password and how easy it would be for someone to correctly guess it. For instance, if a person has his name, birthday, car numberplate or other personal information that is public as his password, then it qualifies as a weak password.
Password Strength
One should avoid using common passwords that are available on the internet like 123456, PASSWORD, qwerty. To create a strong password you need to follow certain rules which fall under these categories:
Password length must be of minimum 8 characters if not more
- One upper case letter (A-Z)
- One lower case letter (a-z)
- One numeric character (0-9)
- One non-alphanumeric character (such as #,$,%,&,!)
- Do not use names of companies or institutions and exclude common formats like mobile phone numbers, calendar dates, etc.
- It must not contain parts of your full name that exceeds two consecutive characters
- Password should not contain your own name, date of birth, anniversary date, PAN number or Aadhaar number
Password Entropy
We have heard of entropy in the Thermodynamics chapter in Physics; however, when it comes to passwords, entropy determines the strength of the password. It is measured in bits, if the entropy is high, the password is strong, and it becomes that much more difficult for anyone to guess it. Hence, one should set a very strong password so that in the case of a brute force attack it will take several millions of years to guess it. If a password entropy is 200 bits then it would require at least 4200 attempts to guess it.
Password Management
Apart from a strong password, you also need to manage it properly. Follow the guidelines below for proper password management.
- Frequently change your passwords, if possible after every few days, particularly whenever there is suspicion that it may have been compromised
- The new password should not be the same as the last 4 used passwords
- Never share your system/email id password with anyone
- Never write down a password like on top of monitor or working desk area or on public devices
- Never communicate a password by e-mail or instant messaging to anyone
- One password should not be used for other accounts too
