With a password you protect data that you do not want to be accessible to other people. Your mailbox, computer, smartphone, government institutions, customer accounts of webshops, online supermarkets or your social media. With a password you protect sensitive information to prevent identity fraud, for example. Did you know that the most commonly used password is ‘123456’? It is not difficult for a hacker to sniff your personal files. A hacker then hardly has to make an effort to find out your credit card details, look through your medical file or take a good look at your email and view all kinds of sensitive information. We all know the examples of celebrity accounts being hacked and then blackmailed with the nude images the hackers found.
The danger of using the same passwords
One of the biggest dangers of passwords is that we often use the same passwords everywhere. Many applications UAE Phone Number List or login systems ask for a username or an email address. For example, if the e-mail address and password are leaked, it is no longer difficult for a hacker to try these leaked combinations on other websites, so that a hacker has access to a lot of data that you absolutely do not want to share. By using the same password everywhere, you make it very easy for hackers to get away with your information. If you set a unique password everywhere, hackers will only have access to the service whose password has been leaked and the impact will be much smaller. An additional advantage is that you only have to change your password on that website.
What is brute force?
Hackers often use special tools and methods to crack passwords. One of the best-known methods is the so-called brute force and dictionary attacks. In a short time, an account is bombarded with password options. In addition to your personal information cast in a password, standard word lists are also used. These word lists News US contain passwords that occur frequently, such as ‘welkom123’, but also corruptions of words where, for example, the ‘o’ is replaced by a 0, or an ‘a’ for an at sign. Because these tools are getting smarter, it is extra important to choose a strong password.