However… it WILL NOT protect you from a hacker.  Here’s why…

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That is the list of the top 500 most common passwords.((Perfect Passwords, Mark Burnett, 2005, website unreachable))  Originally compiled in 2005, the list has remained relatively unchanged, only having the order move about a bit from year to year.  

Why is this important?

I’m sure you are wondering how this could possibly be, right?  After all, your password is completely unique, and NO ONE COULD GUESS IT…  Well, I’m afraid that they won’t have to guess.

This is how password hacking works…

Generally, a hacker will begin the attack by grabbing the password file stored on a server.  At one time, this was all that was needed, since some servers used to keep the lists in plain text that anyone could read. Nowadays, the passwords are encrypted, using one of various techniques  (like sha or MD5) that make reading them more difficult.

For example:

Instead of password1, you would see 7c6a180b36896a0a8c02787eeafb0e5c.

If the list contains only a few passwords, cracking it is unlikely without a huge amount of luck.  But… when thousands of passwords are encrypted in the same way, hacking them becomes infinitely easier.  

This works by simple substitution by a program.  Using software that is freely traded online, nearly anyone can seem magically gifted.  The programs begin the analysis with lists of common passwords, and look for patterns. They then begin substituting in the known most common passwords for the most common hashes in the list at thousands, millions, or even billions per second.  Once the program has discovered a pattern, it is often a single step away from deciphering all the passwords in the entire list, no matter how complex using one or a combination of methods.

After all, when you get right down to it…

• 26 letters
  • Capital (A-Z)
  • Lower case (a-z)
• 10 numbers (0-9)
• 8-32 symbols (depending on the system and what is allowed)

So… between 70 and 94 possible characters for each space.  Looking at the requirements for the website will describe more fully how to limit the search.  After all, if it requires AT LEAST 8 characters, AT LEAST one capital letter, AT LEAST one number, and AT LEAST one symbol, most passwords will have EXACTLY 8 characters, one capital, one number, and one symbol.  The Capital letter will usually be the first letter. The number will probably be a 3 for an e. The symbol will probably be @ or $.  

After this, it is all mathematics.  Depending on the server, the date and time of the password may be put into the hash, or the username may somehow be used, or other variables that will make the crack more difficult, but this is unusual, since coders are often as lazy as the rest of us.

So, on a simple hashed site (which is most of them), your difficult password may be defeated by the horribly simple passwords of others.

Okay then…

Now you know that no matter how complex your password:

• it CAN be compromised;
• you are at the mercy of a site coder;
• you are at the mercy of other users;
• you are at the whim of a hacker; and
• your information is insecure.

HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF?!

Well, that is actually rather easy…

Do what you never do…

Change your password(s) often.

You see, while it is easy to crack any password given enough time, it DOES TAKE TIME.  Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks or even months are needed by most casual hackers (which is most of them) to allow brute force, dictionary and cipher text attacks to work for even a moderate amount of password hashes. If the password is changed during this time, all the work will be for naught, since the discovered password will be different.