What is Password Security and How it is Important?

Overview: The password is a very important aspect of every digital application or account. Here you will find the complete explanation of password security and its importance. Different types of passwords and the risks of sharing passwords are also discussed.

As digitalization increases in the world, new major issues are created too. To secure your digital device you need to create passwords. The passwords are those which act acts a wall between your devices and cybercriminals. Most of the scenarios occur when you leave your phone at the workplace, if it is not password protected then anyone can open it and steal the essential information. There can be multiple losses that you can face by the stolen of your password.

Risks of Password Stolen?

Let’s find some of the risks of sharing passwords that can happen if the password is lost . These are some of the major negative consequences that can occur due to the loss of password security.

• Misuse of Identity- If the hackers get access to your passwords, then they can access your online accounts such as email, bank, and social media. Because of this information, they can send inappropriate messages to anyone or blackmail you.
• Financial Loss - By accessing your account, there might be chances of financial loss they can transfer the amount to their accounts.
• Reputation damage - If the passwords of social media get stolen, then they can post the wrong content through which you can suffer from reputation damage issues.
• Data Breaches - the data can be breached and all of the sensitive information stolen such as photos, videos, and so on.

How does Password Security Work?

The passwords are used to access the digital device. There are multiple types of ways to encrypt the device. However, the mechanism of verifying the passwords is the same for all encryptions. When you enter the strings for the first make or make the password, then those strings are saved to the database. Now whenever you open up the locked device by entering the string they will first verify by the saved strings. If the strings got matched then it is the successful login otherwise it is failed.

In most of the devices you also face the device gets locked. So, it is also programmed that if attempts are crossing a particular limit then the device gets locked because it can be an attacker who is trying to open the device. There are multiple types of password attacks that can harm your useful information.

Types of Password Attacks

Let’s discuss some of the major password attacks that need to be handled to protect your data.

1. Phishing attack

Cyber attackers send the malware attached to the link to the victim. The link is placed like that you do not think it can be malicious. When you opened up the link, the attacker got all your credentials by breaking the password security. Cybercriminals use different methods to trick you into clicking the malicious link. These attacks are possible to control with the Phishing simulation software only.

• DNS Cache Poisoning - Attackers make use of the vulnerabilities in the applications of the DNS server then it starts redirecting to another malicious site that is similar to the domain name.
• URL hijacking - The attacker makes the URL of the malicious site just like the original one with some spelling mistakes and waits for the user to make some spelling mistakes and reach the malicious site.
• UI addressing - The attacker makes the clickable button which reaches the malicious site using the transparent layers.
• Clone Phishing - The attacker sends a copy of the email where the links of Original emails are replaced with the URL to a malicious site.

2. Brute Force

It is based on the hit-and-trial method. In this attacker makes the combination of the user password and tries each one until the password is cracked. The attackers use the script to make the combinations of the password to hit the password security with the help of permutation logic. Brute force attacks are of multiple types.

• Simple - In this attacker uses the simple logic and tries to guess the password based on the user's name mobile number, and date of birth.
• Credential Stuffing - The attackers focus on the previous credentials found from previous malicious visiting sites. Try to guess the password with those credentials.

3. Dictionary Password Attack

It is the method to crack the password which uses a predefined list of words. The list is made from the user’s pattern and passwords on the website from the previous breaches. This list is passed in the tool which returns the different combinations of usernames and passwords.

4. Password Spraying Attack

Here attacker guesses a password and tries to verify it on the different accounts. Before pursuing the new password to break the password security, cybercriminals make sure to try to generate passwords on all possible accounts. Mostly the default passwords are targeted by the attacker which are set by the administrator for the new users.

5. Keylogging

The hacker installs the monitoring tools in the user's computer to record all the keys pressed by the user. A Keylogger records all the details filled in by the user in the form and then sends it to the malicious site and the password security is broken.

How to Prevent Password Attacks

These are the best practices to prevent your password from being attacked on the password security.

1. The password should be strong to keep it away from different password attacks. You should follow these basic rules to create a strong password.
   • Use at least 12 characters in the password and try to make it less than 14 characters.
   • The password should be a combination of upper, and lower, numbers and symbols to make it difficult to attack the attacker.
   • Hackers perform the attack by using the dictionary method so do not use the personal information in the password such as name, DOB, address, and phone number.
   • Use the different passwords for the different accounts and change them frequently.
2. Enable the Multifactor Authentication to log in. Continuing to rely on a single password is not a good approach. You should use multifactor authentication to increase the password security. MFA can make use of OTP or other methods as well.
3. You can use the password manager to store all of your passwords. It generates passwords that are strong and unique. All of your passwords are stored in the encrypted database which they are safe from data breaches.

Conclusion

Nowadays, keeping passwords secure is a major issue. In this article, we have explained all the necessities to make password security strong and secure. The password manager is suggested to use for storing the password in one place. The types of password attacks are also explained so that you can keep safe from these attacks.