Reliablility Of Passwords

The problems with Passwords. Nowadays passwords are the keys to holding all our online profiles across the great big world wide web. In these past couple of years of the internet's invention, problems have arisen that are associated with passwords, the problem is that for them to be effective, they need to be unique, at least eight characters with one special character, a capital letter, and a lowercase, the problem is that it is extremely difficult to keep track of 50 or more different websites. It is simply too hard for us to create and memorize complex and unique passwords which is why we reuse them, since we continuously use so many. (1)

How Does One Maximize the Effectiveness of Passwords?

According to Microsoft's guidelines here is some criteria to maximize the effectiveness of your passwords. (1)

Change your passwords every 60 days.
Make them at least eight characters long.
Use both upper and lower case characters.
Have them contain a combination of unique alphanumeric characters and symbols.
Store passwords using a reversible encryption if possible.

Are Passwords Still Secure?

Although you might think that your passwords are secure, technology has come a long way, with brute force password crackers being able to input 350 billion passwords a second which can crack a password in under 10 minutes, which technically means that anyone is vulnerable to login attacks. Although it may seem that passwords seem useless against these machines, there is still hope, with 2FA or short for two-factor authentication. 2FA is increasingly being used as a second form of authorization or identification. This is a process where you not only need to know your login credentials, username, password, but as well as the one-time use code or security token sent your verified mobile device. Although the security token or one-time use code could technically still be stolen, it still provides a second level of security and verification to the user. (1)

The Future of Passwords?

Although the future of passwords is certain what will replace them is yet to be discovered whether it be 2FA, biometrics, vocal recognition that replaces passwords, one things for sure, that companies will always try to find ways to innovate and that ongoing developments are getting better and better at combating data breaches and coming up with new solutions to tackle the problems of passwords. (1)