Password Basics
Our Secret Agent Alice solves the case by explaining Bob about Passwords!!!
What is a Password?
Passwords are the key to the lock to your virtual world. Just like your secret is kept safe in a secure room using a lock and a key, your personal information on the internet is secured by your login password and username.
The secure room is only as secure as the key to the lock on the door. We need stronger passwords to protect our online data and identity from bad people known as Hackers.
What went wrong?
Passwords need to be private and should only be known to you. A strong password is one that is more secure by virtue of being difficult for a machine or a human to guess.
Examples of weak passwords
- Any common dictionary word, in any language (e.g., “airplane” or “Password”).
- A dictionary word where letters are replaced by numbers (e.g., “a1rplan3” or “P4ssw0rd”).
- A repeated set of characters (e.g., “AAAAA” or “12345”).
- A keyboard series of characters (e.g., “qwerty” or “poiuy”).
- Personal information (e.g., birthdays, names of pets or friends, Social Security number, addresses).
- Anything that’s written down and stored somewhere near your computer.
Bob’s key (his password) was his personal information and hence Eve could guess it.
How to fix it?
By using stronger passwords. Let’s learn how to make a password strong as well as easy to remember. We don’t want to forget it. Do we?