Passwords - Back to Basics!

Passwords – Back to Basics!Michael McKinnon, AVG (AU/NZ) Security Advisormmckinnon@avg.com.au An Avalanche Technology Group Company

What is a Password?What should we aim for in a password?• Should be easy to remember• Should be hard to guess 2

World’s Top 10 Most Used Passwords• 123456 • 12345• 123456789 • Password123• Password • 1234567• 12345678 • abc123• 654321 • Qwerty 3

Can someone guess your password? • Favourite Football Team? • Pet‟s Name? • Family Members? 4

Rank these Password in order of Strength…1. E56#av+Yb!2. Password1233. aaaaaAAAAA#####43 MOST SECURE4. 1234565. lucasjames 5

Why? Anatomy of a good Password• The password: aaaaaAAAAA#####43• It is 17 characters in length• Contains upper and lowercase letters• Contains numbers• Contains the „#‟ symbol• How many combinations? • 72 combinations, 17 combinations long is 72^17 • That‟s 37 thousand billion billion billion combinations!! 6

The Golden Rules of Passwords• Never, never, ever give your password to someone else!• Absolute minimum of 10 characters• Use a combination of different characters • upper and lowercase (a – z, A – Z) • at least one numeral ( 0 – 9 ) • at least one symbol ( !@#$%^&*()_+= )• Password length is always better than randomness• Must be easy to remember 7

Password Separation – Neat Tricks!• Make new passwords for different accounts you access…• Start with your “base” password (aaaaaAAAAA#####43) • “Facebook” – you could take the letters “f” and “b” from Face Book and create a new password: • aaaaaAAAAA#####43fb • “Twitter” – you could take the letters “t” and “r” from Twitter and create another password: • aaaaaAAAAA#####43tr• Mix it up! Be Creative! Don‟t use these examples! 8

Thank You! Summary: 1. Easy to remember 2. Size does matter 3. Separation is vital Happy Strong Password Making  Michael McKinnon AVG (AU/NZ) Security Advisor mmckinnon@avg.com.au 9

Passwords - Back to Basics!

by AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd on Jan 31, 2012

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Passwords - Back to Basics! — Presentation Transcript