Most of our daily lives have shifted online, which means you should create and manage tons of online accounts like email, banking, social media accounts, and much more. All these accounts need a strong and unique combination of characters to protect your data from being stolen and meet the password security requirements. Luckily, there is a variety of password security apps available. The tools can be different: from secure random password generators to the most secure password managers.
Secure combinations of characters are crucial, especially given the increasing number of data breaches nowadays. So if you are concerned about the safety of your accounts and password security then How secure is my password? is the first question you should ask yourself. As they say, information hacking is easier to prevent than to liquidate. And instead of taking action to secure your compromised passwords, it is better to generate uncrackable ones.
How to check how secure your password is? How to create secure passwords to protect your accounts? How to find a password security app? What tools can you use? How to generate strong passwords that will meet password security requirements? – We’re covering it all in this guide, check it out!
Using a weak combination of characters is like leaving your front door without a lock and letting anyone peer into your private life whenever they wish. If any of your combinations doesn’t meet the password security requirements, or you’re reusing them on several accounts, make sure to create secure ones as soon as possible.
A human seems to be the weakest link in online security. So, it’s better to delegate safety duties to password security apps and secure password generators. Luckily, Passwarden combines the best of both tools and guarantees that your password security will not be affected.
Note: Passwarden is also available as a part of the MonoDefense security bundle.
The widely followed are password policy standards issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The institute was founded in 1901 and is now part of the United States Department of Commerce. NIST has a long-standing history of providing a range of recommendations and frameworks across different industries, and in particular, resources for information security.
According to NIST, the three pillars for a secure combination of characters are:
Let’s consider each of these password security requirements in detail.
NIST determines password length as the most important element for making it more secure and protecting your account and sensitive data.
Short combinations of characters are more vulnerable to brute force attacks, when a computer of a malicious program tests, say, every 8-character combination until the match is found. So the longer it is, the better. NIST recommends create passwords as lengthy as you want, within reason.
It’s worth mentioning that hackers often go through the most commonly used combinations first, like “123456”, “qwerty123”, or “football”. Another frequent brute-force technique is a dictionary attack. As the name implies, a dictionary of possible passwords is tested. So, even if your combination of characters is quite long, but it’s simply a dictionary word, like “grasshopper”, it’s still far from being secure. Such passwords can be cracked quite fast and put your accounts and private data at high risk.
How complex should a combination be to be secure? The typical requirement implies that you should use a combination of both upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Here’s an example of a complex combination of characters you can generate in Passwarden: gk^n6FQXp9)8.
Using information like date of birth, name, etc. is very tempting, as it’s the info you always remember. At the same time, being not fully confidential, this information is quite easy to be retrieved by those hunting for your data. To create a secure combination of characters better use random combinations as they are difficult to guess or brute-force.
All these points simply describe why NIST recommends using random password generators to generate strong passwords to protect your login credentials, bank details, etc.
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Each of your accounts should have a secure password that doesn’t repeat anywhere. Reusing the same combination, however long and complex it is, poses risks to the security of your accounts.
Imagine one of the services you’re using falls victim to a data breach, where hundreds or even millions of user logins credentials are stolen. In this case, any other of your accounts with the same password may also be compromised. So, create all your passwords unique to avoid it. With Passwarden this is quite easy. Our secure random password generator will help you to create a perfect combination of characters.
You already know why NIST recommends following the password security requirements. And now we’ll give some examples of why password security requirements should not be neglected.
Weak 8-character passwords like “football”, “12345678” can be cracked in less than a blink of an eye, in just 0.19 milliseconds. Cracking a 10-character combination that contains both upper- and lowercase letters and special symbols may take up to 10 years. The longer, more complex, and random your combination of characters, the longer it is to crack, and the more secure your accounts are.
8 characters password | 10 characters password | 12 characters password | |
Lowercase letters only | instantly | instantly | several weeks |
+ 1 uppercase letter | half an hour | 1 month | 5 years |
+ 1 number | one hour | 6 years | 2 thousand years |
+ 1 special symbol | one day | 50 years | 63 thousand years |
That’s it! You’ve created a secure password combination that meets all password security requirements and reliably protects your account.
Create complex and unique passwords that meet the NIST security requirements with Passwarden!
Alternatively, you can use our Secure Password Generator page. There, select the length of your combination of characters, indicate if you want to use digits, symbols, and capitals, and instantly get your secure password combination.
Copy it to the clipboard and paste it where required. Compared to our password security app, this method has one drawback – the combination you generate doesn’t get added to your vault and you have to remember it by yourself.
Create strong passwords according to security requirements and protect your sensitive data with Passwarden.
Coming up with a super-strong combination of characters may be a challenge. And remember it is yet more challenging. Fortunately, the reliable password manager Passwarden successfully copes with both of these challenging tasks. Passwarden lets you:
Moreover, Passwarden can store such data as bank and credit card details, passport, ID card, Social security number, driver’s license, contacts, software licenses, email accounts, secure notes, and more – secure storage for all your sensitive info!
Enjoy our password security app, generate strong combinations and forget the anxiety about the safety of your details.
Generate strong uncrackable combinations of characters in a few clicks with Passwarden and keep your accounts reliably protected.