What defines password strength?

Which password is more secure: a phrase from your favorite song or a 10-character long combination of random symbols?

In some cases, the answer might surprise you.

So, what defines password strength? And how secure are your credentials?

What is password strength?

In short, password strength is an evaluation of how long it would take to crack, guess or reveal it in brute-force attacks.

It usually measures how many seconds (or trials) a hacker or a pre-programmed computer would need to successfully disclose it.

A strong password would be considered one that takes dozens of years or even centuries to guess. A weak password can take as little as a few trials to disclose.

What risks do weak passwords cause?

Passwords are the weakest link in cybersecurity. Stolen or weak credentials accumulate approximately 80% of all hacking-related breaches.

Therefore, a weak password significantly increases the hacker’s chances of breaching your sensitive account.

A weak password is especially vulnerable to brute force and credential stuffing attacks.

If it is easy for a hacker to guess a password, most likely, he will achieve cybercrime.

What is a good password strength?

As briefly discussed in this article, a good password strength includes several criteria. A strong password is one that a hacker would not be able to guess quickly.

What elements are included in password strength? What fundamental rules should you apply?

Here are the most important criteria that define password strength:

• Keep your passwords long. Although a 10-character password of random symbols is more secure than a short phrase from a popular song, you should always aim for long credentials. Create 15-characters or longer passwords.
• Also, mind the obvious. Even if your password is of the correct length but contains your name, date of birth, or a combination of the two, it will still be considered weak. Avoid using any obvious information, words, or numbers.
• Never use keyboard patterns in your passwords. Although a sequence of letters and symbols might appear random, repetition makes the password especially vulnerable. There are too many people who use such passwords as 123456, !@#$%^&*, or qwerty.
• Mix a variety of symbols. Ideally, your password should contain all the following: lower and upper case letters, numbers, and special symbols. However, avoid such easy-to-guess practices as capitalizing the first letter and adding numbers to the end (f.e., Password1!)
• Never use the same password more than twice. Password reuse is a critical problem in cyber security. It significantly promotes the success of credential stuffing attacks.

Besides, password strength is also related to additional security measures. When applied, it radically increases the credential resilience against cyber threats.

Apart from creating strong passwords, always use Two-factor authentication. This second layer of security can block around 99% of unauthorized logins.

How to remember strong passwords?

It is difficult to remember dozens of strong passwords.

This memorization challenge repels people from creating exemplary credentials.

Yet, you do not need to remember them at all.

A password manager is the best and most secure tool to store and manage credentials. Here’s why.

With this tool, you can easily generate long and complex passwords. A password generator suggests a randomized and secure password that you can trust. After you use it to log into an account, you can easily save it in your vault. The next time you visit the website, the password manager will fill in login fields for you.

Also, to unlock your vault, you will only need to remember one password – a Master Password. This algorithm securely grants access to your account. This way, only you can access your credentials.

Therefore, you do not need to memorize your passwords at all. Store them in an encrypted vault and find your passwords when needed. ( Try it out yourself.)

And that is the beauty of top-level password strength.

It is that easy.