Simple passwords examples. How to come up with a strong password and make it easy to remember
Welcome to the blog site! I have long wanted to write an article about what the password for an account should be so that it would be very difficult to hack it. This article will teach you how to create a complex password. We will look at techniques that will help not only make your password secure, but also not difficult for you to remember.
Now we can no longer imagine our life without the Internet. Almost every site requests registration. The most popular resources are social networks. Every day, millions of users log into their accounts. We risk making a lot of mistakes by sending important data in messages. It’s good to have a complex password for VK or another popular social network, this helps protect yourself from intruders.
Several password complication methods
What should the password be? This question is asked by hundreds of Internet users. The following types of passwords are distinguished:
- alphabetic;
- symbolic;
- digital;
- combined (combination of previous options);
- register usage.
The first three types do not inspire confidence. These are too simple ways to create a password. Due to inexperience, we make mistakes and set them up. Okay, this will be a “password” for an account on a forum or other similar place. And, if this is the entrance to a bank office, all your money will be lost. The only thing that saves you is that the security service of such sites has developed a system for rejecting easy passwords.
Letters, numbers and symbols
A combination of letters, symbols and numbers is the most secure type of password. You have to seriously rack your brain to guess it.
Experienced “users” advise beginners to use this particular combination. Also, don't make it too short. A long combination will allow you to keep your data and correspondence safe from third parties.
The main thing is not to use the banal phrases below:
- "123";
- "123456";
- "321";
- "qwerty";
- "asdfg".
These and other similar sets of characters from the keyboard guarantee hacking. It’s not just you who come to mind first, but hundreds of people. They will be calculated not even by a special program, but usually by an ill-wisher.
How to choose a password for mail or other type of authorization? This issue is worth tackling on your own. Several more password complication options will help.
Register
Before entering your username and password, you should pay attention to the case sensitivity of some forms. Combining uppercase and lowercase letters will make the password more secure.
When writing a secret word, think about its variety. Alternate capital and small letters one or more at a time. This method will seriously upset online villains.
The most annoying thing is if you forget the order yourself. According to the recommendation of experienced users, it is worth making the first character uppercase, the second lowercase, and then alternate one at a time. It is better to take note of this advice so as not to rack your brains later.
You can do without introducing case features into the “password”, but this is still another method to increase the complexity of the password.
Changelings
The date of birth that any user will remember is the most banal and simplest way. If you play it correctly, it can turn out to be a good option. Using the “reversal”, many have managed to create a winning password that is unlikely to be solved.
The method is based on writing characters in reverse order. Choose any date, for example, when you were born and type the text backwards. If you have the phrase “081978” in mind, then turning it over, we get “879180”. It is quite easy to remember how to write such a password.
Let's consider other more complex ideas. Let's assume that the password is based on your first and last name. We type, already knowing the technique using the register - “PeTrPeTrOv”. Now let’s apply the “changeover” tactics. We use the date, for example, when the user was born - February 21, 1982. Plus we’ll add symbols to everything. At the end we get the following example password - “PeTrPeTrOv!28912012”. The result was stunning, because for the “user” it is simple and easy, but not for attackers.
Check the strength and security of your password using online services:
- https://password.kaspersky.com/ru/
- https://howsecureismypassword.net/
Encryption
What should the password be? Let's find out another great way. Let's look at the principle of encryption. In fact, all the previously discussed methods have something in common with this. Here we will show what passwords are by encrypting phrases.
We take the most meaningless and unique phrase that will easily be remembered. Let there be “space cockroaches”. You can use any lines from songs and poems, preferably not very well known.
Then we apply a code to our phrase. Let's look at a few surefire ways:
- rewriting a Russian word on an English layout;
- "shifter";
- replacing letters with symbols that are similar in appearance (for example, “o” - “()”, “i” - “!”, “a” - “@”);
- removing paired or unpaired characters;
- dropping consonants or vowels;
- addition of special characters and numbers.
So, let's think of a few words with meaning - “space cockroaches”. We take 4 letters from each, we get “komtara”. Switch to English and retype – “rjcvnfhf”. We complicate it by starting the cipher with a capital letter and adding symbols.
This is what the password should be, using the example of the originally conceived phrase - “Rjcvnfhf@955”.
A reliable combination with a large number of symbols has been invented. The strength of the password is checked using special services, for example, passwodmetr.com. The combination, as we were able to do, was not easy for the scammers to guess, since the user’s personal data is not involved. But for the “user” such a “password” is a godsend, since remembering such a reliable password will not be difficult.
Generator
For those who do not want to spend extra time thinking, developers have long invented complex password generators. This method provides some degree of reliability. The best ones are still considered to be “passwords” invented by one’s own mind.
What is a generator and how to use it? This is a smart program that displays random passwords - completely random combinations. He uses many of the methods discussed, but does not take into account “turnovers”.
The complex password generator is downloaded from the Internet. For example, let's take "keepass". Like any other generator, it is not difficult to operate. The application and the generation itself are launched by pressing a special button. After the operation is completed, the PC issues a password option. The only thing left to do is to enter the resulting combination in unchanged form or with additions.
Difficult passwords created by the iron friend are very difficult to remember. Rarely does anyone keep them in their mind; more often they have to be written down. There are usually a lot of passwords, because we don’t sit on one site and constantly register again and again on other resources. Therefore, storing a bunch of such information is not convenient for everyone. You can completely lose all the papers with notes.
There is one way out with storage - print them in a computer file. This is one of the most reliable cases. You just have to remember that the PC system does not last forever and also becomes unusable.
All methods for creating complex passwords have already been discussed above, and you can create an email password that will reliably protect your data from third parties.
Here are some useful tips for creating passwords:
- do not mention personal information about the user (names of relatives, names of pets, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, etc.);
- You cannot use the Cyrillic alphabet in your password;
- do not use phrases that can be easily calculated using a dictionary of popular passwords (yaster, love, alfa, samsung, cat, mercedes and other similar ones, as well as their other derivatives and combinations);
- take into account the length of characters - preferably at least 10;
- complicate the password using a combination of various methods - upper and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols;
- do not use the most common passwords - templates, think original (a robot that calculates your password cannot be as smart as a person).
The recently completed year 2016 was a poor year in terms of information security. Many vulnerabilities were discovered in the software, many IoT devices were infected with various viruses, from which a botnet was formed, capable of carrying out DDoS attacks of record power, capable of bringing down some Internet services.
But adding to the frustration is how people choose their passwords. The resource keepersecurity.com published the most popular passwords of 2017. These are the passwords that users used to protect their data in 2016.
Over the past year, there have been several major user data leaks, for example, Yahoo recently announced that almost 1 billion accounts had been leaked. Researchers analyzed more than 10 million publicly available passwords to come up with this list.
A password is used to protect your devices and personal data online from unauthorized access. Our safety online is just as important as it is in the real world. But some people don't seem to understand this. Otherwise, why is the password 123456 in the first place? Almost 17% of users protected their account with this password. And here are the top 25 most popular passwords:
- 123456;
- 123456789;
- qwerty;
- 12345678;
- 111111;
- 1234567890;
- 1234567;
- password;
- 123123;
- 987654321;
- qwertyuiop;
- mynoob;
- 123321;
- 666666;
- 18atcskd2w;
- 7777777;
- 1q2w3e4r;
- 654321;
- 555555;
- 3rjs1la7qe;
- google;
- 1q2w3e4r5t;
- 123qwe;
- zxcvbnm;
- 1q2w3e;
Top most popular passwords in the original:
This list includes 25 passwords, which make up 50% of the total 10 million passwords. Most of them are very predictable, even if they are long. But most of the passwords in the list consist only of numbers and are very short. 1q2w3e4r and zxcvbnm seem safer, but as soon as you try to type them on the keyboard, you will understand what is going on.
The question arises why 18atcskd2w and 3rjs1la7qe are on the list of the most common passwords. They are quite complex and you can’t just sort through them. But there is one theory, most likely, these are passwords that are used by many bots to send spam, it is generated once and used everywhere.
Do not use passwords from this list under any circumstances, and if you are using them now, change them so as not to put your personal data at risk. Here are some rules for choosing the right password:
- Use different characters, letters, numbers, mixed-case characters, special characters, etc. to protect your password from brute-force attacks;
- Avoid using terms, words, or phrases. Search programs first try the most common variants, and then switch to regular dictionaries;
- Use - many users set easy passwords because they find it difficult to remember complex combinations. Password managers will store your passwords in a secure place and only give them to you when you need them;
- Never, ever leave default passwords for your devices. It doesn’t matter that these are standard passwords for wifi or other IoT devices. This is equivalent to the fact that there is no password at all and anyone can access it.
conclusions
In this short article, we looked at the most popular passwords that users use to protect their accounts and systems. Be vigilant and do not make such mistakes. This is very important, first of all, for you.
The VK social network has an excellent security system that protects users from guessing passwords for their pages, even if attackers find out logins from other people’s accounts. In most cases, when an account is hijacked, the user is to blame, and one of the reasons for this is the simplest password.
What does the simplest password mean? This is a lightweight password that usually consists of just a few numbers or letters. Here are examples of simple passwords:
- zxcvbn
- iphone
- 88888888
- password
- andrei
These are just a few examples, but you get the idea and that's the main thing. The more complex, and therefore more secure, the password, the lower the likelihood that the account will be opened by intruders.
How to come up with a complex password for VKontakte?
There are several different ways to come up with a password. We will look at one of the popular and at the same time valid schemes.
So, first let's decide on the number of characters in the password. As a rule, experts advise using at least 8 characters, but this is the bare minimum (by the way, many users use a 6-digit password at best). And although 8 characters is the minimum length recommended for a password, the actual number of characters in it should be at least 10-12. Tell me, is this a lot? But account security is hundreds and even thousands of times higher.
Now let's start creating a password. Remember, it must contain both numbers and letters of different case and even special characters.
The simplest option is to take some Russian word and write it in the Latin layout. For example, the word smartphone on the English layout it looks like this - cvfhnajy. This word has 8 characters. Few? Wait, we're not done yet.
So the word cvfhnajy. We add a number to it, for example, some kind of memorable one. Let it be the number 201. We get the word cvfhnajy201. Just in case, we write the password with a capital letter to make the task more difficult for attackers and we get Cvfhnajy201. Enough? No, you need to add special characters, for example, * . Now our password looks like this - Cvfhnajy201*, as many as 12 characters, while the password itself is complex, but easy to remember. Of course, it is given as an example and we strongly do not recommend using it - come up with your own, fortunately, it’s simple.
By the way, just in case, you can write down the password itself somewhere in a notepad or notebook, and remove the latter as far as possible from human eyes.
Since childhood, we do not like prohibitions and strive to break them by all means. Perhaps due to childhood inhibitions, no one likes restrictions on access to networks and information. Fortunately, most people are lazy and come up with the same type of passwords.
Nobody likes complex, long, different passwords that also need to be changed at least once every 3 months. Owners of Wi-Fi routers don’t bother at all when choosing a password for their network and act according to the principle “the simpler and more fun, the better,” otherwise even guests may laugh at them for being too fond of random character sets.
If you still think that there are a lot of extraordinary, original, creative people in our world, you are very mistaken. If you take the passwords that users come up with as a measure of originality, it suddenly turns out that 90% of people are of the same type and similar to each other.
Most users use the following information about themselves as passwords:
- First name, last name, patronymic or nickname/name of the person.
- Your date of birth or close relatives.
- Names of children, relatives, pets.
- Your phone number or your loved ones.
- A combination of characters on closely spaced keyboard keys.
The most popular wifi passwords
According to the most popular applications for sharing passwords from wi-fi networks, the most popular Wi-Fi passwords in the world are as follows:
| 123456 | 123123 | yankees |
| 12345 | hello | asdfg |
| password | monkey | freedom |
| DEFAULT | hockey | batman |
| 123456789 | 11111 | fuckoff |
| qwerty | soccer | money |
| 12345678 | cheater | pepper |
| abc123 | kazuga | asdfasdf |
| pussy | hunter | 1qaz2wsx |
| 1234567 | michael | 987654321 |
| 696969 | 121212 | andrew |
| fuckme | 666666 | qazwsx |
| football | I love you | 55555 |
| baseball | qwertyuiop | 131313 |
| fuckyou | secret | abcd1234 |
| 111111 | buster | asdfgh |
| 1234567890 | hosts | killer |
| password1 | zxcvbnm | master |
| madison | asdfghjkl | 7777777 |
| superman | dragon | amanda |
| mustang | 987654 | summer |
| harley | liverpool | qwert |
| 654321 | bigdick | computer |
The most popular numeric passwords
Often people are lazy to use a combination of letters and numbers in their passwords (as security experts advise) and use only numbers so as not to “steam”. Here is a list of the most popular digital combinations:
| 000000 | 12345678 | 252525 |
| 0000000 | 123456789 | 333333 |
| 00000000 | 1234567890 | 444444 |
| 0000000000 | 12345678910 | 456123 |
| 000000 | 123654 | 456789 |
| 10101 | 123654789 | 5201314 |
| 10203 | 123789 | 54321 |
| 12345 | 124578 | 55555 |
| 123456 | 131313 | 555555 |
| 123456789 | 141414 | 654321 |
| 80808 | 142536 | 666666 |
| 98765 | 143143 | 696969 |
| 987654321 | 14344 | 741852 |
| 101010 | 1435254 | 741852963 |
| 102030 | 147258 | 753951 |
| 11111 | 147258369 | 7654321 |
| 111111 | 147852 | 777777 |
| 1111111 | 147852369 | 7777777 |
| 11111111 | 151515 | 789456 |
| 1111111111 | 159357 | 789456123 |
| 112233 | 159753 | 852456 |
| 11223344 | 161616 | 87654321 |
| 121212 | 171717 | 888888 |
| 123123 | 181818 | 88888888 |
| 123123123 | 202020 | 951753 |
| 123321 | 212121 | 987654 |
| 1234 | 22222 | 987654321 |
| 12341234 | 222222 | 9876543210 |
| 12345 | 232323 | 999999 |
| 123456 | 242424 | 999999999 |
| 1234567 | 246810 | 321321321 |
“This is Russia, relax,” the famous ma’am tells us. Of course, our country has its own specifics and its own most popular passwords, here are some of them: 
- Putin123
- vPutin
- russia2018
- so4i2014
- 11vobla
- zaqxsw
- bears
- Leningrad
- Palundra
- Monetka
- Rubli1000
- Medvedev
- Ebatkopat
- Armeika
- criminal
- kalasnikov
- matreska
- vodka05
- baltika7
- baltika3
- satellite
- xuyxuy
- bratva
- Alaska
- Respect
- Gorilka
- Eskander
How to come up with a strong password that can't be hacked
In fact, coming up with a reliable and stable password is not difficult - it is enough to use a combination of letters, numbers and special ones (for example: %). In order not to forget a complex password, you can use painfully familiar words/first names/surnames.
Advice: It’s not enough to come up with a good, complex password; you also need to change it several times a year, keep it secret and not write it down on paper.
For example, you can combine your name, street address, cell phone number, and salary. For example, if your name is Dima, your phone number is 8 955 333 88 99, and your salary is 55,000 rubles, then here is an excellent password based on this data: d8i9m5a5l3e3n3i8n8a99%55k.
Fact: Any password can be cracked, but a simple password can be cracked in a couple of seconds, and a complex password can be cracked in several decades.
What passwords to use are extremely dangerous. 5 options with examples!
Using some passwords to protect valuable information or even your wifi network is very dangerous. A simple password can only protect you from a fool, and even then not from just anyone.
Let's share some simple tips on which passwords you should never use:
- Firstly, you do not need to use all the passwords (or combinations thereof) that are indicated in this article. For example: 1234567890
- Secondly, do not use words or combinations in the classical form. For example: DimaSobolev or MoyParol
- Third, do not use publicly known information about you as a password. For example, residential address: Lenena100.
- Fourthly, never use only a numeric password; be sure to mix up the numbers with letters. An example of diluting a digital password with letters: 1a2W34567890M
- Fifth, do not leave default passwords. For example: admin/admin.
The analysts' findings were disappointing: a remote dictionary attack allows 37% of accounts to be compromised, since most users continue to choose the simplest combinations of letters and numbers to protect their computers and systems installed on them.
Thus, it is estimated that the most common passwords among Russian users are passwords consisting only of numbers: they account for approximately 53%. 88% of passwords used are passwords that contain either numbers, lowercase English characters, or both.
At the same time, the passwords used by Russian users in most cases do not exceed 8 characters, and only a few use passwords longer than 12 characters. At the same time, passwords of up to 8 characters are highly likely to be compromised in real conditions, experts say.
The Russian list of the most common passwords consists of 50% of adjacent characters (1234567, qwerty) - these are the combinations included in the TOP 10 common passwords.
Paradoxical conclusions were drawn when analyzing the passwords of information system administrators. Despite the use of longer passwords, administrators in 15% of cases choose “dictionary” passwords or passwords that match the username (10%), and in 2% of cases there is no password at all.
Another group that stood out in the study were women. It has been found that their passwords are somewhat more vulnerable to an attacker due to the more frequent use of dictionary passwords. On average, a remote attacker needs less time to select them.
The report also addresses the issue of weak passwords in the context of compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). According to the study, 74% of passwords used in the corporate sector do not comply with the requirements of the PCI DSS standard.
All of the above factors - the length of the password, the character set used, the full or partial match of the password with the username (login), the presence of the password in publicly distributed dictionaries - are of fundamental importance for its security and resistance to hacking. It is estimated that imposing basic restrictions, such as controlling the minimum length and complexity of a password, reduces the likelihood of a system being compromised by more than 10 times, concluded Positive Technologies information security expert Dmitry Evteev.
“The data obtained by Positive Technologies also confirms the observations of LC analysts,” comments Vitaly Kamlyuk, leading antivirus expert at Kaspersky Lab. - I would like to add that in addition to the risk of using simple or “predictable” passwords, there is another threat - users often use the same password for different resources. After all, today the average user, in order to be safe, must keep in mind dozens of passwords for various online services. However, wanting to simplify their lives, many users often start using the same passwords to access everything - mail, social networks, etc. And this sometimes leads to the fact that the password to access some dubious resource turns out to be the same as and, for example, a code for an electronic wallet.”
According to Aladdin Product Director Anton Kryachkov, Positive Technologies’ research “uses an extensive set of sources and is based on “live” data, which is especially valuable.” However, according to him, ensuring the protection of corporate information based on “a primitive login-password pair is similar to building a brick house on a plasticine foundation.” “Providing a reliable authentication procedure within the company’s information system is the primary platform for additional protective measures, such as secure access to databases, portals, ensuring control of physical access and access to applications,” Kryachkov noted.
And now the Top 10:
1. 1234567
2. 12345678
3. 123456
4. Blank line
5. 12345
6. 7654321
7.qweasd
8. 123
9.Qwerty
10. 123456789
