Password hacking commonly occurs by guessing people’s passwords based on personal information, or through the use of password hacking software. Password hacking can be avoided with minimal effort. This article examines some of the best and worst password practices, then gives you some simple, easy-to-follow ideas on how you can improve the security of your digital identities.

As passwords become more important, we have become less careful protecting them

With the need for us to have instant access to information, passwords are absolutely essential for privacy. We must enter passwords every time we logon to our computer, start an application, open our email, etc. Our list of passwords continually grows and never seems to stop expanding. Instead of remembering one password, as was needed in ancient times, it’s now common for a typical computer user to remember twenty to thirty different passwords, or more. As more passwords are required they become more difficult to manage, therefore we take short cuts with our passwords making our personal information and digital identities less secure.

What we typically do now
Most of us choose a simple word that is easy to remember, such as our:
• name or initials
• child’s name
• pet’s name
• favourite sport
• favourite team