Internet Security: No One is Safe?
In the modern age a lot of what we do is tied to the internet. We pay our bills online, keep in contact with family and work online, and use the internet as a huge social media for ourselves. The fact is: the Internet has control over us, whether we want to admit that or not. But, it’s scary to think that something that has control over so much of our lives can be broken so easily.
When reading the 2 articles about passwords and security there were a lot of questions that popped in my head. Obviously, internet security is simply a rough fought game of building the next best mouse trap, and subsequently building the next best way to break said mouse trap. The scary thing learned from the articles is not the ratio of passwords to accounts and how many passwords are used again and again, but how non-inventive these passwords really are. I can say for myself that I have at least 20 accounts for various websites out there ranging from financial to leisure, and that I reuse my passwords often, but I can at least say my passwords are on the harder side to crack based on GMU’s guide to password security. I remember hearing about bank account PINs a few days ago and hearing something very startling. The 3 PINs of: 0000, 1111, and 1234 make up roughly 20% of all bank account PINs in America. That’s a horrifying thought when you figure with probabilities you have a solid 20% chance to break into any bank account you may be trying to hack. However, the problem with strong vs. weak passwords is the challenge of remembering them. Security sites give you advice to use pneumonics with punctuation and numbers mixed in, but with the average person having so many accounts, it’s just impossible to remember them all. Remembering 2 to 4 isn’t a huge deal, but then you’re still dealing with the problem of overusing your passwords. A fix you could say is to write them down to remember them, but that’s not exactly safe either. The conclusion I’ve come to with password security is that no matter what you do, you’re not going to be safe, you can only pray and hope that you’re not the next hacking victim.
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