by Paul Webster » Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:17 pm
Hi Gav
I don't think passwords have any connection to the demise of Scottish Hills.
The best way to have a secure password is:
- to include combo of letters (both cases), numbers and also symbols in it
- for it not to contain / be made up of real words
- to use a different password for every website so when one website is hacked (which is inevitable given the numbers most of us use) it doesn't affect your accounts elsewhere which might have more valuable data
The length isn't really a huge help compared to the above, though short passwords are obviously bad.
It can obviously be tricky to use a different password, with no words in it, and letters, different case and symbols on every website. The best way to do it is to use a password manager - both Chrome and Safari have one built in these days, though there are also paid options. You then only need to remember the password manager password, which needs to be very secure, preferably using multi factor authentication so you need your phone or similar security device as well as the password to get access.
Passwords on our server are salted and encrypted using a one-way hash, which means we can't access them.