Why is a password with both numbers and letters stronger than one with only letters? Attackers will include numbers in their brute force attempts anyway, so how does it make a difference?
In: Technology
So, you have 26 letters. From aaa to zzz you have some 17k passwords (26x26x26).
Add numbers to get 26+10 you get 45k combinations from aaa to 999 (36x36x36).
You can see how adding a bit more complexity changes the combinations quickly. If you add different cases you get 238k. And if the minimum length is 10 chars you get 839 followed by 15 zeros against 141 and 12 zeros from only letters.
It’s harder to try all combinations, that’s why it’s more secure.
A good password could be a proverb’s initials and some numbers and symbols: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth > dlagH1&$tm. Where the uppercase isn’t the first letter (but the sentence’s subject) and the symbols are inserted at some random location, also some letters are exchanged by numbers. Find your own proverb, that one is a short example.
Don’t use the current year or your birthday, that’s what every hacker tries first. Don’t put the numbers at the end. Don’t be obvious. Be creative.
Want a simple number? Think of a place you like, Google when was it opened/inaugurated/established. That’s a good number no one can guess. Like some railroad station, Google when was it created, there you go. Let’s say dlagH1465t$m for something from April 1965. Instead of a proverb use your own phrase: I love the train Station on my town > i<3ttS0m465t (yeah, that’s a heart <3).
Be creative. Those are examples I came up with while writing this, it’s not that hard 😂
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