Password Hacking Techniques

Nowadays, everyone knows to use they need to use more complicated passwords to protect our online accounts. After all, almost all of us has had an account that's been compromised in the past, or we at least know someone it has happened to.

But how exactly does this happen?

Well, there are many ways, actually.

Today's hackers come in a few different varieties.  You have the government hacker, who usually works for the government and uses hacking skills to either protect information or gain access to information that belongs to other countries. Then we also have the criminals, who are trying to find ways to get money.  And lastly we have the kids who are trying to show off and prove just how clever they really are.  

So you see, you really don't have to be a "rocket scientist" to crack an online password anymore.  Almost anyone can do it.  In fact, you really don't need to be all that computer savvy at all.  Not with the creation of password cracking programs that can now be downloaded online for free.  A simple Google search for the phrase "free password cracker" turns up nearly 17,000,000 results, many of which provide step by step instructions on how to go about cracking the password to *ahem* your account in case you've forgotten it, or even links to programs you can download that will do it for it.  However, this kind of password cracking has limits.

Password cracking programs like the ones shown in the Google search screen shot above are mainly designed to work on computers that you have actual physical access to, i.e., the one in your home.  So, for example, if you're trying the secretly find out your child's Facebook password to see who they're talking to and about what, or if you have an idea your wife is having an online affair via Match.com, one of these programs and/or tutorials could be pretty successful at getting you their login info.  But getting information on someone else's account, say, your neighbor, would be a bit more difficult to accomplish.

Password Hacking Techniques

Online password hacking allows people to access or steal account information from other people across the world without ever having to psychically access their device. And of course, there are many techniques they can use to do this.  A few of which are list below.

Dictionary attacks:  This type of password attack employs the use of a program that basically takes a list of common dictionary words, and even know popular passwords that are not in the dictionary, and tries logging into a user's account with each one until finally one works and account access is gained.  This is generally the first way hackers will attempt to get into an account because they know most people still use easy dictionary words to create their passwords.  Although usually effective, this technique can be slow since it can take thousands and thousands of guesses and login attempts before finding the right password.  Not to mention, this technique would not work on a website that only allows a user a specific number of login attempts before denying access all together.

Brute force attacks:  This technique is a bit more complicated.  It is similar to a dictionary attack except it can include alpha-numeric combinations.

Phishing scams: This technique requires cooperation from the user personally.  A hacker will usually send a bogus email disguised as one from a legitimate company requesting confirmation of personal account information, including login info.

Malware/key loggers:  Malware (the "mal-" stands for malicious) comes in several flavors, all of which are designed to unknowingly take specific information from you without your permission.  Key loggers are especially bad because they can track the information you type on your keyboard and send it to a hacker.  If you login to an account by typing your username and password, this will be logged and sent as well.

There are many more online password hacking techniques, but these are some of the easiest and most popular.  Being informed is the best way one can protect him or herself from a password attack.  With just a little bit of effort, a person can cut their risks of being hacked down tremendously.

For information on keeping our accounts safe, please see my Keeping Your Accounts Secure post.

Keeping Your Accounts Secure

Odds are you have many online accounts that require passwords to access.  Odds are you use the same password for many of them. Odds are this could cause you problems at some point.

Many people today don't realize the importance of securing their online accounts.  Especially those that many contain sensitive information, such as your social security number or credit card information.  In fact, criminals today could even cause you great financial harm by just knowing your full name, address, and date of birth.

When choosing a password, there are several things to keep in mind.

1) Longer does not always equal better.  Just because your password is 16 digits long does not mean it is secure.  Especially if those 16 digits is from one long, common word, or even one long common word followed by a sequence of digits like 1234 or 1111.

2) You should make sure your password is a combination of letters and numbers, and symbols if allowed.  You should also use a series of upper and lower case letters when possible.  For example, pinkflower850 as a password is pretty weak that way, but if you modify it to PinKfloweR_850, it becomes reasonably safe.

3) You should try to make your password from NON-dictionary words.  That's from all languages.  So, using the same example above, even though we decided it was reasonably safe after we changed a few of the letter cases and added an underscore, it would become quite impenetrable if you also added a misspelling, like this: PynKflouwR_850.

Here's a table to explain further:

Some of the most common passwords (and easiest to hack) are listed below:


1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. 12345
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. 1234567
8. 12345678
9. rockyou
10. abc123

I really hope that none of these passwords are being used by you at this moment, but if so, or even if one of your passwords is similar to any of these, I would suggest you change it as soon as possible using the tips and ideas I gave you previously. Remember, an average-skilled hacker would be able to penetrate your account within minutes with certain software if your password is too simple.

Another good idea is to have separate passwords for different accounts in the event one of your accounts is compromised.  Often times people use the same password for multiple accounts, and hackers know this.  Therefore, having the same password for everything leaves you extremely vulnerable.

You might think, "But how the heck and I supposed to remember all those hard passwords!?"  Well, you don't have to memorize them.  A good way to keep up with all your different passwords is by using a program called a password manager. A very good one that I would recommend is called KeePass.  (You can download a copy by clicking here.)  It allows you to store all of your passwords in a highly-encrypted database right on your own computer.  I recently began using this program myself and have had a very good experience with it so far.

This will wrap up my article on keeping your accounts safe, and I hope you learned something that will help you in the future.  Before you go, please take a look at the image below for a few more safety tips.