Essay about The Vulnerability of Weak Passwords

This utilizations two sorts of assaults Dictionary assault and Brute Force Attack for hacking wifi passwords.

Password complexity: - This helps to successfully break the password for a password of letters and third-party software cannot be known by the combo numbers to be.

Credential Theft/Dumping – using tools such as WCE, Mimikatz, gsecdump to collect plaintext or hashed usernames and passwords

Why(2) : Many of the users used weak passwords which can be easily guessed by the hackers. Weak security measures was also an important reason which inlcudes weak encryption of the passwords by using outdated techniques for encryption. Updated security tools and strong password encryption might have helped to prevent this attack.

35. Password-cracking can be accomplished by intelligent guessing on the part of the hacker or through the use of an automated __________ attack. Dictionary

Often attacks are based on software bugs that a hacker can use to give himself or herself super-user status. Also one can get a copy of the password file (which stores user names and encrypted passwords and is often publically accessible) and either do a brute-force attack trying all possible combinations, or encrypt a dictionary and compare the results to see if anyone choose a password that is a dictionary word.

18.) Brute force When password guessing, this method is very fast when used to check all short passwords, but for longer passwords other methods such as the dictionary attack are used because of the time a brute-force search takes.

RoboForm securely stores user names and password when you log into a site, and supplies them when you return.

One of the other failures that the book presents us is the user’s weak password practice and how the intruder took advantage of this is to gain super user privileges and created several user accounts by gaining root privileges. All it takes is a one-time access as super user to establish his base into the defenders zone. This book describes how the intruder took advantage of brute force method to hack user accounts and password. Also, the intruder was smart enough to steal the password information file and even managed to encrypt all the dictionary words by using the same encryption algorithm and then compared those words with the stolen encrypted passwords file to find out passwords of user accounts. The scientists/ researchers at the laboratories who are not aware of such kind of exploitations made intruder’s work easy by having easy to guess passwords, never bothered to change the passwords from time to time or in fact did not realize the importance of having strong passwords in order to maintain and protect their research data in a safe and secure way. Even today, not all the users realize the importance of having strong/secure passwords and we come across such instances where intruders exploit users ignorance. (For example, Two years ago, before I enrolled in MS-CS program, I did not know how brute force attacks work or

Notice that the commands that you entered to establish passwords for the various modes of access are now password protected and that you can read the passwords. (1 point)

2. Second, I will show you all how a hacker gets into a victim’s computer.

The most effective way to protect your personal information on the internet is to have a strong password. A strong password should consist of a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. Ideally you want a unique password made up of at least ten characters for every website you have an account on.

In the early days of computing, a hacker was primarily referred to as a computer guru, someone who is extremely technical with a high expertise in computer also known as “Expert Programmers”. Nevertheless, as technology is advancing at a face pace, hacking has adopted a completely different definition. The modern definition is someone who access a computer system primarily to steal or destroy information. Hacking has caused major harm in the realm of technology. Over the years, hackers have become much more lethal in their craft. They manage to break into complex information systems from entities such as banks, government agencies, and private businesses. Furthermore, they often manipulate their victims through social engineering in order to obtain financial benefits. Hackers hold different label such as: black hat hacker and white hat hacker in which all have their own motives.

Linton (2011, p.44) stated that hacking of network of common users and attacking their personal computers is one of the most threatening problems at present. It is happening in every second that results in a loss in several ways like loss of credentials, personal information etcetera. Although the use of personal computers and the internet has been increased rapidly, numbers of users who are the expert and have good knowledge to tackle the matters are very rare. In addition, time, as well as required equipment to protect hacking, is also very.

There are two types of theses but both have their own problems. The first "checks every password possible from the entry site." (1) The second uses a program that goes in and reads the passwords off. The problem with both is that you have to "get the cracker into the site, undetected"(1) You also must cover you trail. Some prefer the manual method first. "There are actually lists of 100(or more) most-used passwords."(2) Hackers have reported that, "a simple password that appears in the English dictionary will take about an hour or less for a hacker to crack."(4) "This is not considered a long time to a hacker."(Brian 2) Third, they use what is called web spoofing. This is the most dangerous because they see what every you are doing. They can get you passwords plus any other information you might have. This web spoofing is caused by a middle man who can redirect information from your page, to his page, to the page you were sending the information to. "The middle man sees all."(How are they getting my password? 3) This is above all the easiest way to get any information that they might want or need. The last method is through Java. Through a program they can hack into a computers hard drive through your Java program. That is why if you can avoid keeping your passwords on your hard drive do it. Some people keep their passwords on three by five cards and store them which is allot safer. The best method to