A Cyber-tale of Precaution

Once upon a time, a hacker named cyber wolf was trying to break into three user accounts. The first account that he attempted to break into had a very simple password, and he was able to gain access fairly quickly. The second account was a little more challenging because it had a number at the end and an exclamation point, but he had success again. The third account proved to be the most challenging and had the wolf huffing and puffing for several days with no luck because the account owner had tied his cell phone as a secondary form of authentication.

The reality of our modern environment is that no lone wolf is trying to blow our house down. There are several packs of wolves, sometimes working in tandem trying to make cracks in our security.

With the growth of behavioral authentication in recent years, we can unlock our phones with our faces and make purchases with our fingerprints or smart devices as we move into the future of a contactless world. Why do we still, need passwords?

Passwords are unfortunately still a necessary evil, and they are the first line of defense when it comes to authentication keeping the wolf at bay from accessing the growing list of accounts that we all seem to have.

Let us look at how we can improve this tried and tested first line of defense by introducing you to the wonderful world of passphrases.

A passphrase is similar to a traditional password but a lot more secure and easier to remember because it's based on things you like. You connect several words; the longer the passphrase, the safer it will be and don't forget to keep the wolves outside your virtual wall by adding a symbol, number, and an uppercase letter keep your house safe and secure.

 

Here are a few examples to try below:

 

iwillhuffandiwillpuff@ndiwillBl0wyourhousedown

theresn0pl@celikeHome

weaRegoingtoneed@biggerb0at

lifeisLike@b0xofchocolates

 

Multi-factor authentication is also a great way to keep your house safe by using multiple authentication methods to keep the wolf outside your door. This way, even if your password or passphrase is compromised, the attacker needs to access your secondary device to continue with the attack, or third if you added three authentication methods.

This tale's primary lesson is that working hard now pays off later, so take the time to build your house with a strong layered foundation by using something you know like a passphrase. Something you have like a cell phone(dual-factor authentication) or something you are like a fingerprint or facial recognition(multi-factor authentication). Please don't make it easy for the cyber wolf to access all your accounts by placing all your eggs in one basket. Don't recycle your passwords; instead, try using a good strong password manager.

By 

Jonathan Morales