Security
PASSWORDS – HOW VU W
e are now using the Internet for a wide range of activities within our daily lives, including online banking, stock trading, online shopping, bill paying, socialising,
entertainment and online research. Unfortunately, the more personal details we make available, the more exposed we become to online identify theft. Identity theft is when a criminal steals our confidential personal data that lets them fraudulently obtain goods and services in your name. A cyber-criminal could, for example, open a bank account, obtain a credit card or apply for a driver’s licence or passport in our name, then simply steal money directly from our bank account. They do, and it happens to thousands every day.
Passwords are the first line of defense against cyber criminals anxious to access our personal stuff, access our identity and, of course, our money. Passwords make it harder for cyber criminals to profile us, duplicate our identity and abscond with our assets.
So, how secure are you with that secret password of yours, that singular protective word that’s supposed to consist of both upper case, lower case string of alpha characters, symbols and numerics that you can barely remember? It’s purposely so secret because it’s used to authenticate your identity so only you can gain access to your most treasured assets. Yet, it’s so difficult to remember that most will store their passwords in their browser for convenience. The obvious problem with saving your difficult to remember password in your browser is that it’s easy for someone who gains access to your computer to instantly access all your passwords.
There are many ways a cyber-criminal can crack password, such as by merely guessing your password (using your pet’s name is a common mistake). Tools such as key loggers, phishing attacks, social engineering, dumpster diving or peeking over your shoulder are also sufficient. But of course, the easiest and most efficient is by use of easily downloadable freeware designed specifically to locate your password. There are many available online; Hashcat, Rainbow Crack, PWAudit, Accent RAR, and a new super-fast password cracker developed by Ivan Golubev, IGHashGPU, to name a few. A GPU equipped computer can process thousands of threads and can accelerate these cracking software tools by 100X over a CPU alone. Ivan’s cracker tool can crack approximately 790 Million hashes per second, finding that hidden password in seconds. So, it’s important
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to create strong passwords that are different for each of your accounts and it’s strongly recommended that you update those passwords regularly.
Microsoft’s Technology Security group says: “There are a couple of different ways to create difficult-to- crack passwords. One is substituting letters with characters and numbers. To make it easier on yourself, try to use numbers and characters that resemble the letters they are replacing. For example, you may wish to use the first letters of the words in a favorite line of poetry or a verse of song. “Hail, hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love” becomes “H,hTL0,IR2t1L.” Also, people often think that a short password of random characters such as “+*4F#0$” is super secure, but actually a long string of combined random words such as “ferrarimonkeybreathdatemonger” is actually far stronger. This added length causes uncertainty and is computationally more difficult to crack.
The next level of password security is authentication, essentially the process of determining whether someone is actually who they say they are. When a potential subscriber accesses an authentication server, a username and password may be the only identifying data required. In a more sophisticated authentication system the user must request and receive an encrypted security token that is then used to verify access. A higher level, and dare I say, far more secure is the multi-factor authentication (MFA) being implemented by major software vendors, telecommunications and financial institutions. MFA solutions provide tokenless security and give formal verified proof by constantly shifting the user password. The MFA market is understandably growing at a feverish rate and expected to reach $5.5 Billion by 2017 according to Markets and Markets latest research report.
Also, Microsoft’s newly released
365 Office products offers an advanced multi-factor authentication, PinSafe, as their safeguard to insure password security in the cloud. Microsoft’s MFA PinSafe approach abruptly reduces hacker cracking and eliminates their interest. It’s designed for absolute simplicity for the user and comprehensive security.
If you’re seriously concerned about your password strengthen it by using the suggestions above or start using multi-factor authentication as a company or as a consumer. You really need to be protected.
By Igor Sill
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