When was the last time you heard about someone getting their online account hacked? With the widespread use of the internet and the services that have sprung up around it, the web has attracted the attention of kids playing around, criminals, and criminal enterprises ready to hack into your account if they think that you have something of value, or just to boast that they can hack you. There are countless free tools online for anyone to download, point at any website and try to gain access to your account once they know your username-usually your email address.
Most accounts are hacked because of weak passwords, and your very own password could also be at risk. There are free software tools available to check your password strength, even after you have created your password manually and save yourself the embarrassment of being a member of the worst password list. To see the list of the top 10, 000 passwords click on this link here, and you can even make your own infographic and share it with your friends.
Before you start entering your password to check its strength, my suggestion to you would be to run your browser in privacy mode and possibly through a service such as Anonymouse. Even easier, once you get to the page that I have sent you, turn of the internet on your computer and test your password, and then turn it back on once you have tested your password. By the way, there are two simple things that will help you to create a secure password and are very important as far as passwords are concerned:
1. The length of your password-The longer your password, the harder it is to crack or brute for your account. Therefore, use a phrase rather than a single word and obfuscate as much as possible.
2. Dictionary word-Stay away from words that can be found in dictionaries. Check here for how to obfuscate your passwords when creating your password manually.
Register Forms of Some Reputable Websites
This is probably one of the best ways to check the strength of your passwords. The first websites that comes to mind are Dropbox and PayPal. They both have a pretty good signup page with a password checker. All you would do is go to the register pages of the more reputable websites you know that offer a visual representation of the strength of your password. Enter the password that you are currently using, or thinking about using, and see what that site thinks about the strength of your password. Alternatively, you may use this Dropbox tool here to analyse your password.
Microsoft Password Checker
Microsoft’s password strength checker will give you a color reference to indicate the strength of your password. A weak password will be in red to the left of your screen, and a strong password will move the indicator to the right of your screen and turn green.
Password Security
Password Security is a very powerful password strength checker. I would suggest that you not show your password when you are typing. That will make you a little less secure. Password Security, in my opinion, is actually more useful because of the amount of detail that it provides. It even tells you how long it would take for your password to be hacked.
How Secure Is My Password
This is probably my favorite on this list in terms of its simplicity. The color of the entire page changes depending on the strength of your password. A weak password will leave you with a red page, while a much stronger password will leave you with a very green page, as well as useful information based on the analysis of your password.
The Password Meter
This password tool also gives you some insightful information on the strength of your password. The meter ranges from a bright red for a very weak password to a bright green for a very strong password.
My 1 Login
This is a useful online tool the check the strength of your password. You can sleep well knowing that you have a strong password.
Conclusion
There is no excuse to have your account hacked by novices. At least let them work very hard to get into your account. With the amount of time and resources that they will need to hack into your account, they will move on to more valuable targets such as Yahoo and the FBI.
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