If your password is something along the lines of “password” or “12345″ or “qwerty” … First of all, what are you thinking? Second of all, Microsoft is making you change it.
Microsoft is banning common passwords from Hotmail, the popular Web-based email service. Soon, no longer will you be able to use stupid passwords like “ilovecats” or “gomariners.”
If one of those is your password, I’m sorry. I don’t mean you suggest you’re stu– wait a minute, yes I do! Common passwords are easy to guess and leave your Hotmail account open to hacking.
“Having a common password makes your account vulnerable to brute force ‘dictionary’ attacks, in which a malicious person tries to hijack your account just by guessing passwords (using a short list of very common passwords),” Dick Craddock, Hotmail group program manager, wrote in a Microsoft blog post Thursday. “Of course, Hotmail has built-in defenses against standard dictionary attacks, but when someone can guess your password in just a few tries, it hardly constitutes ‘brute force’!”
The new Hotmail feature will be rolling out soon. People will be required to use strong passwords when signing up for a Hotmail account or changing their password. “If you’re already using a common password, you may, at some point in the future, be asked to change it to a stronger password,” Craddock wrote.
So, how do you create a strong password? Here are some tips.
Microsoft recommends you avoid the most common bad habits:
- using any dictionary word in any language,
- spelling words backward and using common misspellings or abbreviations,
- using sequences of letters or numbers, such as “123456″ or “777777″ or “abcdef” or “qwerty.”
- incorporating personal information such as your name, birth date, drivers license number or – gasp! – social security number.
So, what should you do? Microsoft provides the following exercise:
You can check the strength of your password with this Microsoft tool.