How to recognise a financial scam
During recent Cyber Security training at Penn Barn, all the staff found the Hive Systems Password Table insightful, so we thought it was worth sharing with our clients.
It shows the number and type of characters used in passwords and how long it would take a hacker to crack the password. There is a huge difference between it taking two seconds to hack a 7-character password (numbers, upper or lowercase letters) compared to 53 years when you add five more characters or 779 million years when your password is 16-characters.
Here are five password tips:
- Use 3 random words joined by punctuation and numbers e.g. Train_Chelsea_Bucket
- The longer the password the safer it is
- Setup dual or multi factor authentication
- Use a different password for each account
- Use a password manager – a program that stores passwords in an encrypted space, so you don’t need to remember them.
Stay alert! We are here to help, so if you are ever unsure please contact us first.
By Philip Harper | January 2025
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