Secure Passwords Are Critical
The importance of using strong passwords is often ignored, sometimes by even top-level executives from some of the world’s largest corporations. Fox News reported in an article published by TechMediaNetwork that the Austin think-tank Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor) was hacked into by Anonymous on December 24, 2011. Thousands of private email addresses and credit card details from the firm’s clients and recipients of the company’s emailed newsletters were stolen.
Hashcat, a computer-automated password-cracking tool, was used to determine the types of passwords that were being used by Stratfor’s clients and subscribers to keep their accounts secure. As expected, the passwords were easy to guess and easy to crack by hackers.
Some of the worst passwords found include the following
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123456, 11111111, and 123123
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111222333444,12345678901, administration,123456789abc,12345stratfor, hello123, lawenforcement, and intelligence
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Passwords played off of the word “password” itself, like password1234, password101, password123, password122, and password999.
Of the thousands of leaked Stratfor passwords, only 1,411 had 11-characters, 627 had 12-characters, and only 165 had 13-characters. Security experts recommend creating passwords that are long, complex, case-sensitive, and have multiple characters.
How safe are your passwords?
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