Cybersecurity For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8

Passwords

IN THIS CHAPTER

Selecting passwords

Discovering how often you need to change passwords — or not

Storing passwords

Finding alternatives to passwords

Most people alive today are familiar with the concept of passwords and with the use of passwords in the realm of cybersecurity. Yet, there are so many misconceptions about passwords, and misinformation about passwords has spread like wildfire, often leading to people undermining their own security with poor password practices, sometimes even done in the name of improving cybersecurity.

In this chapter, you discover some best practices vis-à-vis passwords. These practices should help you both maximize your own security and maintain reasonable ease of use.

Passwords: The Primary Form of Authentication

Password authentication refers to the process of verifying the identity of users (whether human or computer process) by asking users to supply a password — that is, a previously-agreed-upon secret piece of information — that ostensibly the party authenticating would only know if they were truly the party who it claimed ...