Technology Tips – Published June 2023 in the Guide and Digest
By Don Trauger – Kennett
I’m sure you didn’t want to hear that, but it’s true. This powerful new tool has demonstrated that it can crack passwords, not in days or weeks but in seconds. The test, run by a cybersecurity firm, used a special AI driven tool. The tool managed to crack half the passwords fed to it in under a minute. Sixty five percent of the passwords were cracked in under an hour.
To circumvent this possibility, you need to use a password manager program to generate and save passwords. A password should have at least 20 random, unique characters created for each site you wish to apply the password. Password managers will automatically create different passwords for each site you create in the program.
A free password manager program is KeyPass. It will automatically generate a 20 character password without you getting involved in any complexities. You can download it at: https://keepass.info/download.html. Download version 1.41. Downloads are placed in your Downloads folder. Double click the KeyPass download file to install it. An entry password is required to open the program. Once you open the program, first choose a group name from the left side of the window. Click the plus sign next to General and choose Internet. Generally, web site entries use the Internet group. The 4th icon from the left in the top row of icons of the window should be the Add Entry icon. Click it to open the website window you wish to protect. Enter a Title name. After you’ve added 2 new entries right click one of them and move to Rearrange then click Sort List by Title. Continue the sorting for each new entry.
Increasing the strength of your Internet passwords will greatly reduce your chances of being hacked and it will also reduce anxiety that you are doing enough regarding your Internet security.