Here are example passwords that discourage ‘brute force’ dictionary cracking:
OK Password: Better Password: Excellent Password:
kitty 1Kitty 1Ki77y
susan Susan53 .Susan53
jellyfish jelly22fish jelly22fi$h
smellycat sm3llycat $m3llycat
allblacks a11Blacks a11Black$
usher !usher !ush3r
ebay44 ebay.44 &ebay.44
deltagamma deltagamm@ d3ltagamm@
ilovemypiano !LoveMyPiano !Lov3MyPiano
Sterling SterlingGmail2015 SterlingGmail20.15
BankLogin BankLogin13 BankLogin!3
Shelby ShelbyPass1 Shelby.Pass1.
Rolltide RollTide%
RollTide%.%
StarWars $tarwarz $tar|warz
Why are some passwords stronger than others?
A strong password resists guessing. Hackers and computer intruders will use automated software as a way to submit hundreds of guesses per minute to open your online account. These software tools are called ‘dictionary’ or ‘brute force repetition’ tools, because they will use English dictionaries to sequentially guess your password.
For example, a dictionary tool will submit sequential guesses like this:
Dog
Dogs
Dogcatcher
Dogcatchers
Dogberry
Dogberries
Dogma
Dogmatic
Dogmatized
Dog1
Dog2
Dog3
Dog4
These password-guessing tools can submit up to 1000 attempts per minute. The less that your password resembles regular English word patterns, the longer it will take for a repetition tool to guess it.
Beating dictionary programs: use non-English word combinations.
These password variations below purposely avoid using complete English word patterns. By injecting numbers and special characters instead of letters, these passwords will take exponentially longer to guess by a dictionary program:
Dog.lov3r
dOG.lov3r
i7ovemydog!!
d0gsaremybestfr13nds
sn00pdoggyd0G
Karm@beatsDogm@
C@ts-and-Dogs-Living-together
