With the advent of the Internet and the multiplication of its applications (web, e-mail, instant messaging, file sharing, etc…), each Internet user is using more and more services (online shops, banking, administration, messaging, etc…) that require authentication that is still very largely based on the use of passwords.
Several problems are related to the passwords of Internet users:
Use of a weak password and therefore easy to guess.
Indeed,
according to a 2013 study by Dashlane (a French start-up that manages
passwords and publishes a digital portfolio), more than 80% of the
customers of the online shops studied use a basic password such as
“123456”, “password”, “password”, “password”, “password”, “azerty”,
“toto” etc…. and nearly 20% use their birth date as their password.
These basic passwords are very easy to guess and hack (they are the first to be tested, whether by humans or automated robots).
Use of a single password for several services.
Example: using the same password to identify yourself to your bank, e-mail and online shops.
If
the unique password is discovered by a malicious person (hacker,
hacker), it will be easy for them to connect to different services that
use the same password.
WHAT IS A SECURE PASSWORD?
A good password consists of at least 12 characters and should contain
3 different types of characters (lower case, upper case, numbers,
special characters such as a comma, a hyphen, a period, a parenthesis
etc…).
Ideally, you should use a different password for each site or web service.
Double
authentication linking your password to an email address or phone is a
good way to strengthen the security of your passwords.
What you should not do with your passwords
A password must not be clearly linked to the user: avoid your
date of birth, city of birth or residence, the first name of your
spouse, children or pet.
To avoid password theft problems, do not
keep your passwords in a file or on paper, your passwords would be
compromised if someone retrieved the file or paper sheet containing
them.
Some tips for a secure password
It is possible to define complicated passwords and memorize them using mnemonic means:
Use
a “classic” password that can be easily memorized and shift each letter
one key to the right (starting or ending with a capital letter)
Memorize a sentence and take only the first letters of each word in
the sentence. Start with a capital letter and end with a punctuation
such as a period, question mark or exclamation mark.
Use the name of
the service (alternating upper and lower case) then for example 2
special characters and 4 numbers (a year or a memorable date).
Use a password generator to have a hard password
There are a large number of them on the Internet that allow you
to have very complicated passwords to decode. This ensures that all your
documents and other private data that may be stored on your computer,
smartphone or tablet are well protected.
