What is the importance of having difficult passwords?
A strong password provides essential protection from financial fraud and identity theft. One of the most common ways that hackers break into computers is by guessing passwords.
Why do sites have password requirements?
The reason that password complexity requirements are enforced on many sites is to prevent users from choosing a weak password. There are numerous examples in recent history which show that most users will select weak, easy to enter, easy to remember passwords over complex passwords.
How to fix websites that require a username and password?
Fix login issues on websites that require a username and password Enable cookies for the website. Make sure that cookies are enabled for the site in question. If you changed any… Clear history for that site. The cookies and temporary data already stored on your computer may be causing the problem.
Are there any sites that allow weak passwords?
As the paper says, “Some of the largest, highest value and most attacked sites on the Internet such as Paypal, Amazon and Fidelity Investments allow relatively weak passwords.” Even sites that have a lot to lose from security breaches often have weak security requirements. Why is that? This might seem a bit of a puzzle.
What’s the point of making passwords harder to guess?
The point of the restrictions is to (try to) make the password harder to guess by an attacker. Truly, preventing some users from using some specific password values mathematically reduces the number of possible passwords; but, practically, this is more about forbidding the easy passwords that users would almost always choose if they had the choice.
Why do some services require passwords to be periodically changed?
The first question is: why do some services require passwords to be periodically changed. The answer is “Risk Mitigation”. Corporate governance requires IT security policies to be defined in accordance to a risk management plan. One of the question that risk management plans ask is how can one mitigate a risk if it occurs.