Safe Cyber Space

Trying to come up with a password that can easily be remembered is easier said than done.  So it seems a lot of us opt for the simplest of codes such as qwerty and 123123 which, according to AO.com, are among the 10 most common passwords used.  The trouble is that tech experts from the online electrical retailer say hackers are able to crack these passwords within seconds, which more often than not allows them to feast on personal information and possibly steal identities.  And if you think using a word or words that are memorable to you, such as a partner’s name, place of birth or name of a pet, is safer, think again as most of this information is available on social media platforms: AO.com reckons it can take a hacker just 13 seconds to come up with a password that is someone’s date of birth puntuated by full stops.  But all is not lost.  Boffins from the Home Office Cyber Aware campaign think they have the answer: combine three random words that are unrelated.  They believe that passwords created by their system like kettlebusband would make it near impossible for hackers to crack.  They cite teabrownpicture would take 35,000 years to decipher.  Add a number at the end, and 35,000 years becomes 227 million years which becomes eternity or four trillion years when combined with a symbol.  That’s 1BigNumber!