Password Strength!

Hello All! ^_^

Been busy with exams, and just two more to go before I be back here again! LOL! By the way, I saw, lately, there have been some downloading posts continuously on my blog, I guess, its time to change that regime, else people would start taking my blog as not a place for cool things but just another downloading engine! LOL! So! Today, I thought to take a break from studies, and come back to my blog and make a post! :D

So the topic we gonna discuss today is - Password Strength! Hell yes! That's the thing many of us have trouble with while making our e-mail IDs or registering in some forums and all, when they say - Your password is weak, and then it irritates us sending impulses of fear throughout our nerves telling us - WE GOTTA THINK OF A NEW ONE! ELSE WE ARE AT RISK #GULP!#

So what's next?! Of course I am gonna tell you guys about password strength and some tips to make a strong password. Actually it struck in my mind to share this with you all, when in my recent newsletters I found, CNET's topic on Password Strengths.

So the thing is that, a few apprentice hackers try the algorithms and recursive functions to generate millions and trillions of passwords and check them on some e-mail IDs or similar things, accounts, etc. The more are the characters in your password, more are the number of combinations possible, and hence longer time to find the correct password, and hence lesser probability of being hacked! But a small password can also do fine, if your password is a unique combination of characters like, the special symbols(@#$%^&*()<>?,./;':"[]{}|\~`), alphabets(both capital and small), and numbers too. There are tools that help you generate such passwords, but remembering them is a total havoc for your minds. So what comes out as the call of the hour is that, make your own strong passwords by using all of the above as a combination. You cannot guarantee the security, but yes, more the number of characters, and more the versatility in the types of characters used, more difficult and lesser probability is of the fact that somebody might break through!

Now, thanks to CNET, I have found some tools for you all to check the strengths of your passwords, or generate strong ones, etc. DO CHECK 'EM ALL!(don't worry, they are safe! :) ) :-

1. Microsoft's Password Checker - Some people would now giggle and say really?! But I pity your bad knowledge, and I'd say - YES! :P Microsoft's Password Checker is a strong, free and easy-to-use INTERNET based tool and is really cool. The only problem is that, it would tell all your passwords below the length of 14 characters to be weak or, in the best cases, the password to be medium(LOL!!!)
   CLICK HERE to check out this tool! :)
2. LBW-SOFT's Password-Review - This is yet another cool tool, similar to your Microsoft one. So I don''t have to give much details, all you gotta do is go and check it out!
   CLICK HERE to check out this tool! :)
   
3. AskTheGeek's Password Meter - Another web based, reliable and handy, free and easy to use, good tool, to check the strength of your password! I would suggest try as many as you people like so that you are damn sure of the strength of your password! ;)
   CLICK HERE to check out this tool! :)
4. Should I change my password - This is a website that crawls on many sites to see if your account and its information has been compromised and made public(if not made public, you people won't be able to find this handy). Since many hackers make the accounts public, this tool lets you know about it. You just have to enter in your e-mail address, and then wait for the website to check and let you know if that's the case. And in case, that has happened, immediately change your password! And as I said earlier, in case the details ain't made public, this tool won't be of help, but it's not futile to check after-all! :)
   CLICK HERE to check out this one! :)
5. Password Hasher - yet another cool tool. It is used to generate passwords, rather strong passwords. So in case your memory is awesome and you are not able to generate a password on your own, try it out so that it lets you know a strong password, but be cautious! - As i said, its for those who have a sharp memory! Strong passwords are not easy to remember, always! :)
   CLCIK HERE to check out this tool!
6. Wolfram password Generator - Similar to password hasher, it also helps you generate strong passwords! :)
   CLICK HERE to check out this tool! :)

If you people may like to refer the CNET Articles too, you may go on for the following links! :) :-

• CLICK HERE for improving password strength Article from CNET
• CLICK HERE for Checking Password Strength Article by CNET
• CLICK HERE for Microsoft's Article about Strong Passwords

I hope this article was helpful to you all, thank you for reading! :)