Vernacularism

With the proliferation of internet usage, all of us have dozens of usernames and passwords, from passwords for Amazon or Tesco to our email and online banking passwords. We believe these passwords are known only to us and cannot be easily cracked - but is it really so?

Microsoft recently conducted a research into how hackers go about breaking into password-protected accounts with the use of a ‘honeypot’ - an FTP server that attracts the attention of hackers and then logs information on the methods used in the attack. The results were surprising and they revealed how much hackers are aware of human nature.

From the logs made of the ‘brute-force’ attacks - which is a systematic way of cracking password codes where the hacker works through a list of likely options - it was seen that the most commonly used passwords are ‘password’, ‘123456′, ‘#!comment’ and ‘changeme’, proving that hackers are capitalising on the fact that people choose easy-to-remember passwords.

The research was primarily done keeping in mind systems administrators and the guardians of corporate networks, but it applies equally well to consumers. It may sound quite obvious and hackneyed, but to protect your online account, choose a password that cannot be easily guessed by others, and preferably one that is a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers, and if possible, special characters as well.

A number of websites that offer password generation services are there to generate strong passwords for your needs. Another option is to use Microsoft’s password checker to make sure your online passwords meet the requisite safety standard you require.

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