Complex passwords for the game. How to come up with a strong password that is hard to crack

Almost every Windows user has encountered the concept of cookies. What they are, why they are needed and why it is advisable to clean them, read within the framework of this publication.

Cookies - what are they?

A cookie is a text file with data that is written to the browser by the server of the site you visit. These data are:

• login and password information;
• individual settings and user preferences;
• visit statistics, etc.

Using this data, the site you visited will be able to identify you. This happens as follows:

• the site server queries the browser for information in the cookie file;
• the browser provides this information by sending a response to the server;
• Depending on what information the site server receives, you will be identified or become a new person for the site (if the cookies are cleared).

The main parameter of a cookie is its expiration date. By default, this is one computer session. Files are deleted when the browser is closed. If they have an expiration date, they become permanent and are deleted upon expiration or by the browser cleanup function.

What are they needed for?

First of all, they are needed for the convenience of using the Internet. For example, once you log into your profile on the site, you will not need to constantly enter your login and password after closing the tab.

Also, thanks to cookies, individual account settings are saved. For example, some sites offer to add to favorites, change the design, change the interface using such files with an expiration date.

Where are cookies stored?

Files are saved in a custom folder. Each browser has its own path:

• Opera C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera
• Google Chrome C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Chromium
• Yandex.Browser C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Yandex\YandexBrowser
• Mozilla Firefox C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox

Why clean?

It is advisable to clear your cookies from time to time. In addition to being useful, they can also cause some inconvenience:

1. They provide quick access to your profiles without entering a login and password. If a stranger is at your computer, he will be able to access your personal data.
2. In addition, if an unauthorized person ends up on your computer, you can track your browsing history using the uncleaned cookies. This is bad from a privacy perspective.
3. If the site processes your cookie file incorrectly, you may not be able to log into your profile, or some functions on the web service will not work correctly.

How to clear cookies?

Here's an example of cleaning for popular browsers:

1. Opera. Ctrl+H → Clear history → Cookies and other data from sites.
2. Google Chrome. Ctrl+H → Clear history → Cookies, as well as other data from sites and plugins.
   
3. Yandex browser. Ctrl+H → Clear history → Cookies and other data from sites and modules.
4. Mozilla Firefox. Ctrl+Shift+Del → Cookies.

How to disable?

In general, the creation of cookies can be disabled in the browser. This feature is available in all popular browsers, so there shouldn't be any problems. But after turning off this function, some sites may stop working, since they interact with the user exclusively using cookies.

To disable in popular browsers:

Advice! If you see notifications in your browser: “cookies must be allowed” or “an attempt to save a cookie is blocked,” then your browser does not save cookies by default. Open settings and enable saving cookies.

Many site users complain that pictures and photographs in blog topics often do not open. This could be for several reasons:

you just need to come back a little later.

2. Slow Internet. You can check the speed of your Internet, compare it with the one for which you pay under the contract.

3. Cookies may not be enabled in your browser (the program you use to access the Internet). What are cookies? You can read about them in detail on Wikipedia.

In short, A cookie is a small piece of text information that the server sends to the browser.
Most modern browsers allow users to choose whether to accept cookies or not, but disabling them makes it impossible to use some sites. In general, you need to look in the settings, usually they are enabled by default.

There are programs like CCleaner to clean cookies. Sometimes they accumulate quite a lot and they take up extra disk space. You can download and install this program . If you haven’t used such a program yet, your computer has long turned into, sorry, a garbage pit from which no one cleans up...

In order for my computer to work like a clock, so that disk space is free, I clean cookies DAILY after finishing work on the computer. If you do not do this, over time the work will slow down and many programs may not open.

How to enable cookies?

In Mozilla Firefox

1. From the Tools menu, select Options.
2. To update your cookie settings, go to the "Privacy" section and select the "Cookies" option.
3. Check the “Allow sites to set cookies” checkbox.
4. Click OK.

In Netscape 7.1/Mozilla 5.0

1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
2. Click the arrow next to "Privacy & Security" in the viewport.
3. In the Privacy & Security section, select Cookies.
4. Select "Enable all cookies".
5. Click OK.

In Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+

1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options.
2. To update your browser settings, go to the "Privacy" tab.
3. In the Settings section, click the Default button or move the slider down to Medium.
4. Click OK.

In Apple Safari

1. From the Safari menu, select Options.
2. To update your cookie settings, go to the Privacy tab.
3. Select "Always" to accept and remember all cookies.
4. Click OK.

Opera 9.00 and higher:

On the menu Tools (Tools) select item Settings (Preferences) and go to the tab Additionally (Advanced), select menu item Cookies and install Accept cookies (Accept cookies).

Helpful Tips:

• It is worth periodically analyzing cookies stored on your computer to see if they contain confidential information. Sites that create such cookies should be blacklisted, allowing only session cookies for them;
• After you finish using your computer in public areas, it is recommended that you delete all cookies. There are special portable versions of browsers designed to automatically delete cookies;
• By setting your browser, you can prevent third-party cookies from being accepted. This, as a rule, does not affect the viewing of WEB sites (counters, iframes, etc. are cut), but it significantly reduces the number of cookies saved.

Only at first glance, impenetrable passwords do not contain a logical structure and look like gobbledygook. Complex passwords are such only for those who do not know the recipe for creating them. You don't have to remember letter cases, numbers, special characters and their order. All you have to do is choose a memorable one and follow simple tips for creating strong passwords.

Nursery rhymes

We take any children's rhyme or counting rhyme as the basis for the password. It is advisable that it be found only in your area and not be generally known. And better than your own composition! Although any children's rhymes will do, the main thing is that the lines are firmly stuck in your head from a young age.

The password will consist of the first letters of each word. Moreover, the letter will be written in uppercase if it is the first in the sentence. We replace some letters with numbers similar in spelling (for example, “h” with “4”, “o” with “0”, “z” with “3”). If you don’t want to get too confused with replacing letters with numbers, look for a counting rhyme that already contains numbers. Don't forget about punctuation marks that separate words and sentences - they will come in handy.

Example:

The turtle has its tail between its legs

And she ran after the hare.

Got ahead

Who doesn't believe it - come out!

We replace the letters “h”, “z” and “o” with similar numbers. The second, third and fourth lines begin with capital letters and are therefore written in uppercase. Include four punctuation marks. Of course, we write in Russian letters, but on the English keyboard layout.

The 17-character password is ready! It may not be perfect because it contains repeated characters and consecutive lowercase letters and numbers. But to call it simple is certainly hard to come by.

Favorite sayings

The scheme is similar to children's counting rhymes. Only as a basis you take your favorite and very memorable phrases of thinkers, celebrities or movie characters. You can complicate your life somewhat by replacing the letter “h” not with “4”, but with “5”, for example. There can never be too many confusing maneuvers!

Example:

I found out that I have

There is a huge family:

River, field and forest,

In the field - every spikelet...

Replace the letter “h” with “8”, do not forget about upper case and punctuation marks.

Ze,8evTjc^H,g,bk,Dg-rr…

Jargon and terminology

This implies the use of professional jargon that is understandable to an extremely narrow number of people. These words are much more distant from the average person than the criminal sayings that are widely covered on television and the streets of any city.

For example, you can use a hospital discharge or a tricky medical definition.

Example:

Cyclopentaneperhydrophenanthrene is a 28-letter term. It turns out to be a bit long, so I propose to throw out the vowels and dilute the remaining consonants with upper case.

Memorable dates

Of course, your birthday or the day you start your married life is not the best basis for a password. The event should be of exceptional importance, and only you should know about it. For example, this could be the day you ate gum for the first time, ran away from class, or broke your heel. Since the password will be based on numbers, it would be a good idea to mix them with letters.

Example:

10/22/1983 and 06/16/2011

Replace the dots separating the day, month and year with any letter, for example the small English “l”, which is very similar to the quite commonly used separator “/”. Between dates we will put an underscore character “_”. Let's replace the zeros with the letters "o".

Visual Key

Use the smartphone unlocking technique on your keyboard as well. Think of any shape and “slide” your finger along its contours.

Don't forget to go through the numbers, change the horizontal and vertical direction of movement. And, unlike me, be imaginative!

Conclusion

The proposed methods for creating a password that is memorable, but at the same time quite difficult to understand, can be changed and combined at your discretion. It is enough to think about your super password once, and you can use it in the presence of a stranger without fear.

How do you choose your password?

Internet users have become smarter over the past few years. No seriously. If earlier my friends complained about the constant hacking of their mailboxes or pages on social networks such as VKontakte or Odnoklassniki, today they come up with such a problem much less often. Not least of all, this has to do with the password - the most important part of any account, which for some reason is very often neglected. And in vain.

Imagine that you have a page on a social network or, for example, an account on Skype. If an attacker gains access to the same Skype, he can spend the funds in your account. At the same time, you will not be able to present anything to the company itself, since you are responsible for your account. Or another case - someone opened yours and started sending spam to your friends. Who might benefit from this? No one, and only you will be to blame.

But before we start talking about the main topic of our article today, I would like to make a small digression. I want to tell you that even an extremely complex password consisting of 50 characters cannot protect you if you neglect simple security rules. Why?

• The first reason is that you save the password in the browser. Never, remember, never, under any circumstances, do this! There is a type of Trojan that, when it reaches the user’s computer, checks the saved contents of the browser and, if saved data is found, transfers the information to the attacker, without you even knowing about it! Therefore, always write down all important data (the same password) in a diary or on a piece of paper to which only you have access.

• The second reason: it is a continuation of the first. If someone has obtained data from your account on a social network, then they will probably try to use this password on other resources where you are also registered. This is why some users lose their mailboxes so easily - they use the same password everywhere! You can't do that! For each site, create your own unique combination of symbols!

• The third reason: phishing sites. Alas, not one of us is immune from them. A phishing site is a fake site whose design completely copies some popular resource. Very often, for example, the same “VKontakte” is faked - you go to its exact copy, which is not on the vk.com domain, but, say, on vkkkk.com. After you enter your profile data, it will instantly go to the attacker, although you yourself will not be able to access your page - after all, this is a completely different site, only outwardly similar to VK! Therefore, always carefully monitor the domain names of sites where you enter your valuable login and password. (You can also get to a phishing site by changing the hosts file, but we’ll talk about that next time).

• The fourth reason: keyloggers. A keylogger is a small program, launched, as a rule, without notifying the user, which remembers all his actions: every keystroke, mouse movement, etc. Most often, keyloggers are used by jealous people who want to catch their significant other writing a love letter to an unknown person, but often such programs get onto the computer from the World Wide Web and are used by bad guys to steal data, because everything typed on the keyboard is saved in a file, which is then sent to intruders.

Are you tired yet? I hope not, but modern reality is a very cruel thing and you need to be prepared for it. These are just a few of the main reasons why people lose access to their accounts. Therefore, follow the rules that we wrote about just above and then the risk of getting into a similar situation will be reduced to a minimum.

How to come up with a complex password?

Well, friends, now we move on to the most interesting part, namely, we will learn how to create complex passwords. In fact, there is nothing new in the system that will be discussed below, it’s just that many users are not even aware of it.

Where to begin? Perhaps this is why - the minimum number of characters cannot be less than 8. Why exactly 8? According to recent studies, words of 7 digits or less are selected much faster than words of 8, not to mention something larger (for some reasons the difference in selection time is very large). However, we advise you to slightly increase the number of digits to at least 12-14 - in this case, it will be almost impossible to select symbols programmatically, it will take years!

So, now about the most important thing. Take some simple Russian word. Let's say the word is "wallet." Now we take it and write it on the English layout, that is, we have succeeded, evf;ybr. An excellent set of characters, it must be noted. Now at the beginning or at the end we add one capital letter - V. It turns out V,evf;ybr. Quite good, but that's not all. In the final part, we add some arbitrary number, for example, the year of your birth - 1975. The final password turns out like this: V,evf;ybr1975. It has 13 characters, including letters of different cases, numbers and special characters. Believe me, it will be so difficult for an attacker to find this word that he, most likely, will not even be able to do it!

The password, which you can see just above, is given for informational purposes only and is NOT NECESSARY to use! You can come up with it yourself by following our instructions. Just don't forget your password! To prevent this from happening, write down a set of symbols in your diary or in some notebook and hide it away from human eyes. There is no need to write it down in your phone - someone can see it there, and if the phone is also stolen, then...

By the way, there are special programs for automatically generating and storing passwords on a computer, but I don’t recommend using them - despite the fact that the data is securely hidden in the program, something can happen to the computer and then you can say goodbye to your data "... Be careful!

Passwords are everywhere: on social networks, payment systems, on your computer and phone. It is unrealistic to keep so much information in your head, so many users follow the path of least resistance - they come up with one key that is easy to remember, and then enter it on all sites where they register.

This approach to security can end in disaster. If the access code for VKontakte or Odnoklassniki can be lost without serious financial consequences, and therefore there is no need to make it complex, then you need to come up with a password for registering in the payment system or creating an Apple ID so that no one except the owner has access to the data.

Rules for creating passwords

Almost all sites have a list of password requirements when registering. However, usually these requirements are minimal: at least 8 characters, cannot consist only of numbers or letters, etc. To create a truly complex password, you need to keep a few more restrictions in mind.

• Login and password must not be the same.
• It is not recommended to use any personal information, especially if it can be obtained from social networks or other sources.
• It is not recommended to use words.

To understand the logic of these prohibitions, just look at how passwords are cracked. For example, a 5-digit key is only 100 thousand combinations. By simply searching through all the options, the hacking program will find a suitable combination in 2 minutes, if not less. A rare word will not work for an access code either. An attacker can analyze different dictionaries in different languages ​​and find a match. The only question is how long it will take - a few minutes or a couple of hours.

Advanced PDF Password Recovery program for cracking passwords set on a PDF document. Uses brute force and allows you to fine-tune the selection by noting the characters used in the password.

The combination of a rare word and numbers will also not work. Bruteforce technology allows you to search for combinations of numbers and words, so that such a key will fall if necessary. It will, of course, last a little longer than 123456789, but if you suffer losses due to hacking, then this time difference is unlikely to seem significant. To understand which password is strong and which is not, let’s look at specific examples. The approximate hacking time is calculated using password checking services, which are described below.

• Date of birth (05041992) – will be hacked in 3 milliseconds.
• A name with a small or capital letter (Segey, sergey) will last 300-500 milliseconds, that is, less than half a second.
• Combinations of numbers and lowercase letters (1k2k3d4a9v) – approximately 1 day.
• It will take about 6 years to crack a password like HDA5-MHJDa.
• The combination AhRn&Mkbl363NYp will be deciphered in 16 million years.

The cracker will not work for 16 million years or even 6 years - this value only demonstrates that it is impossible to crack the password within an acceptable period of time.

Password generation

It's one thing to know the rules, another thing to follow them. Most users are aware that they cannot use an access code consisting of their date of birth or name to register, but this stops few. Two problems:

• It's hard to come up with a complex password.
• Even if you create a password containing a random set of characters, it is difficult (sometimes simply impossible) to remember it.

An online password generator will help you solve the first problem. On the Internet you can find a large number of services that offer to quickly create a complex password from letters, numbers, and special characters.

Online generators work on the same principle: you indicate which characters you need to use, select the required number of characters and click “Generate”. The services differ only in certain aspects.

For example, on Pasw.ru you can generate several dozen passwords at once (up to 99 combinations). PassGen allows you to set the option to automatically exclude duplicate characters from the security key, that is, all characters in it will be in the singular.

Key storage

If you can generate a password online, then you need to store the keys on your computer. Writing the password on a piece of paper, in a separate document on the computer, on a sticky note glued to the screen is the path to unauthorized access to data. So here comes the second problem: how to remember the created key.

You shouldn't rely on memory, but you can rely on a password manager. Many users choose KeePass. This program is distributed free of charge and works on Windows 7, Windows 10 and other modern versions of Microsoft OS. In addition, KeePass has a built-in password generator, so you don't have to search for online services every time.

The only downside of a password manager is that it also requires an access code, which is called a master password. But remembering one master password is much easier than keeping dozens of complex combinations in your mind. In addition, when creating it, you can use a trick - take poetry, counting rhymes or any other memorable lines as a basis and turn them into a combination of letters, numbers and signs.

For example, you can take a quatrain, highlight the first letters and punctuation marks, and then write them in the Latin layout. Some letters can be replaced with numbers - “z” with “3”, “o” with “0”, “h” with “4”. As a result of such manipulation, from four lines of a children's poem that will never leave your head, you will get the password U0d?D3ep.Gzc3hek, which will take 3 trillion years to crack.

Difficulty check

On many sites, when registering, the user is shown whether he has a good password. You can make sure that the generated code is complex and you won’t be able to hack it quickly, you can do it yourself using the ? In the “Enter Password” field, paste the generated password. In response, you will receive the approximate time it will take to crack the key on a regular computer. If it’s several million or at least thousands of years old, then the code is definitely reliable.

You can also use other services to check reliability: for example, from Kaspersky Lab. It also shows the time required to crack a password, at the same time telling you what can be done within the specified period.

Another interesting way to check is the “Password Strength” service on the website 2ip.ru. Here the result is categorical: the key is either reliable or unreliable.

You need to understand that the hacking time shown by these services is very arbitrary and is designed for the case if the hacker uses a regular computer. A supercomputer with fantastic performance will do the job faster, as will dedicated password-cracking machines that can test up to 90 billion keys per second. But it is unlikely that people who own such equipment will need your email, Skype or Wi-Fi password.