But they can also use fraudulent apps, websites, and social media profiles.

Phishing scammers may call, text, email, or message you on social media. They pretend to be credible, usually as a trusted organization or someone you may know. Phishing involves a scammer pressuring you to give the hacker your money or valuable info. However, short passwords can easily be discovered within hours in some cases. Unlike dictionary hacks, brute force doesn’t handle long passwords well. Brute force attacks use an automated program to recreate every possible combination of characters until it finds your password. Much of this info can be revealed just by spending a bit of time browsing your social media. Users commonly include names, birthdays, and even favorite sports team names in their passwords.

Social media and publicly shared personal info are used to target you personally. Users make passwords easy to remember, so these hacks try to mimic obvious patterns. Here are some methods hackers use to get into your accounts:ĭictionary-based hacks use an automated program to combine dictionary words in common ways. Software is designed to account for crafty user behavior as it guesses your passwords. This is important since many people try to make passwords hard for people to guess, but do not consider efficient algorithms. But hackers took notice.Ĭybercriminals use sophisticated technology to get your passwords nowadays. You used to be able to just switch up the characters in your passwords and “Tr1Ck” your way into security. A criminal would use any information they could find about you and use common patterns in passwords to guess yours. This used to be a smart way to fight data theft. The average user will create passwords to fool human hackers. So, of course, you'll want to build a password that hackers are unlikely to discover. Password Security ThreatsĬompromised passwords give cybercriminals an open door into your most personal accounts. But their success is your nightmare, so you’ll need to take steps to avoid being a victim of password hacking. Weaknesses in your account credentials can be a cybercriminal’s dream. You will need to create passwords that can fight modern password theft methods.

Exposing yourself to identity theft and extortion is a risk you should never take. Without up to date practices, you might be using passwords that cyber-frauds can easily guess within hours. Why Having A Strong Password Is ImportantĪ strong password is the main barrier keeping most of your online accounts from being hacked.

Making strong passwords