In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I terrified you with stories about how sites store your passwords and how hackers can then crack them. As I said, no password is uncrackable. That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that you can generate passwords that are strong enough so that hackers don’t bother with you.

Hackers may target specific, high-profile people, expending a lot of energy to access to their accounts. But most of the time, they’re looking for quick and easy ways to get into a large number of accounts. Remember, a really weak password can be cracked immediately.

… Read More

Before we start, let’s get one thing straight: No password is uncrackable. Given enough time and resources, hackers can figure out your password. In this article, I’m going to cover the history of how sites store passwords and give you a brief explanation for how hackers bypass different storage types to get your passwords. Once you understand how passwords are stored, hacked, and cracked, you’ll be much better prepared to develop good, strong passwords.

So back in the Internet’s Iron Age (i.e., the mid 90s), sites wanted to personalize their user experiences, so they designed membership frameworks that allowed people to maintain virtual online personalities (a.k.a. user accounts). Essentially, this gave users their own little place on the Internet where they could maintain an identity, participate in discussions, and eventually purchase things.

… Read More