A Password Protection Plan of Attack
Strings of characters resembling hieroglyphics, capital letters along with lowercase, numbers, many of them mixed together: these are the lengths people go to when creating passwords in the age of identity theft.
Still, many people have taken to using simple passwords, and the same passwords, over and over again, and that's just asking for an ordeal.
Many Boca Raton computer repair experts say they encounter this with clients even when they're using passwords to guard credit card numbers, bank accounts or personal information that is a target for thieves.
PC Magazine recently released a list of the most common passwords. They are, by and large, an unimaginative lot, topped by what some systems still use as the default word unless a user opts to change it: "password."
There's also "123456," "abc123" and "qwerty." The only member of the animal kingdom to make the list rings in at No. 6: "monkey."
Even the technology gurus aren't immune. Some reputable Ft. Lauderdale computer repair experts themselves admit recycling passwords.
One thing is for certain, however: Give hackers an opening and they will seek, find and exploit a weakness. It's almost a given.
One of their tools is a "dictionary attack," where a nefarious enemy will use an automated program to try accessing an account by using every word in the book. Such a password can be cracked in no time.
Continue reading this article here ...
