In a competitive field, passwords are one of the worst things about the Internet. Long and complex passwords are more secure but difficult to remember, leaving many people using weak and easy-to-guess credentials. One study by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed how millions are using their pet’s name, football team names, “password” and “123456” to access online services.
But this leaves you wide open to attack: cybercriminals can crack weak passwords in seconds using automated tools. “A hacker needs roughly two seconds to crack an 11-character password made up of numbers,” says Alex Balan, director of security research at security company Bitdefender. If the password is more complex, containing numbers, symbols and uppercase and lowercase letters, the time needed to break it jumps to 400 years.
Experts say a good password should be unique and contain a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. The key to a strong one is length, says independent security researcher Sean Wright. “While password complexity does help, the length matters far more.” Experts recommend a minimum of 11 characters, more if possible.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
The typical internet user has about 100 sets of login details — memorizing this number of complex passwords is well beyond most people’s powers of recall.
Password manager apps can resolve this problem by creating long and complex credentials for you, and remembering them the next time you log in. Yet only about one in five people in the UK use one, according to recent estimates.
Many people are put off by the hassle, while others are suspicious about allowing one company to store all of their passwords. How do you know which one is trustworthy, and what if the company is hacked?
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
It might seem daunting at first, but a password manager, such as 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden or Dashlane, will make your life a lot easier.
If this all seems too technical, or you are managing passwords for an elderly parent or grandparent, there is another option. While they’re sometimes mocked, physical password books aren’t a bad idea, as long as you follow the guidelines in creating strong, unique logins, and the book is kept somewhere secure and doesn’t leave the house.
(The Guardian)
在網路的諸多惡名中，密碼是最令人頭痛的事之一。長而複雜的密碼較安全，不過很難記住，因此許多人使用弱且容易猜出來的認證。英國國家網路安全中心的一項研究揭示，數百萬人使用其寵物名字、足球隊名、「password」（密碼）一詞以及「123456」來存取線上服務。
但這讓您很容易受到攻擊：網路犯罪分子可使用自動化工具在幾秒鐘內破解弱密碼。資安公司比特防毒的資安研究主管亞歷士‧巴蘭說：「駭客需要約兩秒鐘來破解由數字組成的十一個字符的密碼」。若密碼較為複雜，包含數字、符號及大小寫字母，破解它所需的時間便會驟增為四百年。
專家表示，好的密碼應該是獨一無二的，是包含字母、數字及特殊字符的組合。資安研究員尚‧萊特表示，強密碼的關鍵在於長度。「雖然密碼的複雜性確實有幫助，但長度更重要」。專家建議至少要十一個字符，若可能的話要更長。
典型的網路用戶有大約一百組登入資料──記住這麼多複雜的密碼遠遠超出大多數人的記憶能力。
密碼管理器應用程式可解決此問題，透過為您創建長而複雜的認證，並記住它讓您下次可以登入。但根據最近的估計，這類應用程式在英國只有大約五分之一的人使用。
許多人是因為怕麻煩而不用，也有些人對於讓一家公司儲存他們所有的密碼感到疑慮。你怎麼知道哪家公司可以信賴？如果那公司被駭了怎麼辦？
密碼管理器，例如1Password、LastPass、Bitwarden或Dashlane，剛開始可能會讓人望之卻步，但它會讓你的生活變得輕鬆許多。
如果這些看起來都太技術化，或是您正為年邁的父母或祖父母管理密碼，那麼還有另一種選擇。實體密碼簿雖然有時會被嘲笑，但這點子不賴，只要您遵循指引創建強而獨有的登入資訊，且將該密碼簿保存在安全處、不帶出家門。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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