It's time to change your passwords.

When was the last time you change your password? If you can't remember, it's time. If it's short, it's time. One thing I'd like you all to consider is using a Passphrase instead of a Password. The object of the game is to beat hacking bots.

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You know if you have a weak password. Your pet's name, your kid's birthday, your old phone number, Password1234. Having weak passwords is like having your own personal Storm Trooper on your desk ready to steal all of your personal information for nefarious use by the Empire. Chances are, if you can remember it, a computer can guess it and get it right in short order.

We all know that in any strong password, you should use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (usually two of each). So your password could look something like this:

My2020Password!! or Pa$$w0rdsAre:(

But those are difficult to remember, and really hard to type in on your phone. And not long enough. That's the key. Computers are smart and fast. They can hack passwords very quickly, and there are thousands of computer programs available to do it. Complexity isn't the enemy of hackers and their bots, LENGTH is.

  • 7 characters - It takes .29 Milliseconds to hack.

  • 8 characters - 5 hours to hack.

  • 9 characters - 5 days to hack

  • 10 characters - 4 months

  • 11 characters - 1 decade

  • 12 characters - 2 centuries

So instead of a hard to remember password, use a passphrase, i.e. a sentence that is easy to remember and easy to type. You have a lot to work with: 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase letters, 10 numbers, 33 special characters. May I suggest doing something like incorporating your first street you lived on plus a word or two spelled in numbers and special characters and a descriptor...So if you lived at 217 Main Street, this is how I'd do it:

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That is 24 characters and a passphrase you can remember. Please don't use the same password for every account. Differentiate these for different accounts by adding a unique identifier in there for your platform, like thier stock code (Google is GOOG, Apple is AAPL, etc. https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/lookup.asp)

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Also, please do not keep your passwords in a file on your computer, use a password manager. You security will be so much better. A password manager is a software application designed to securely store and manage online credentials.

There are many companies out there: 1Password, Dashlane, Bitwarden, Keeper, and LastPass. I did some research and tested all of these and my recommendation is 1Password. LastPass got hacked while I was a member and I wanted to cry. Some geeks still love LastPass, but I'm pretty sure that they still eat Playdough. (No offense if you eat Playdough, here's a recipe for making it yourself: https://domesticsuperhero.com/best-homemade-playdough-recipe/.)

My favorite is 1Password. It is a very powerful and great for Apple users, but also supports Windows nicely. It has warnings if your accounts get hacked (dark web monitoring) or if you're reusing an old password. It is easy to use and you can use it for other information like credit cards as well. Also supports 2-factor authentication and custom fields and works on mobile, too.

Also, buy a premium account. Inexpensive: $3/month. Don't be cheap, this is like buying insurance. I don't get paid for recommending this, but you should use it.

Have fun changing all of those passwords. Take it one per day and you'll be done quickly. And your life will be easier with 1Password. https://1password.com/

Do you want to check the dark web yourself to see how many of your passwords have been hacked? Open an incognito browsing window and visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and you, too can live your own personal hacked-password nightmare. I'm sorry in advance, but it's best you know.

Digital SecurityCecilie Korstpasswords