Use a passphrase as your Norton Core network password

A strong password has to meet the following requirements:

Going by the above guidelines, a password with 8 characters would have trillions of combinations of alpha, numeric, and special characters. This makes the recommended password guidelines good to set a strong password.

Remembering a complex password is one hard task for us humans. Sometimes, we end up writing down the password somewhere that is prone to theft. But usually, we choose simple combinations that we can easily remember or relate to. And this makes it easy for hacking tools and algorithms to predict and crack the password.

For example, a password like P@ssW0rd123! may look strong given that it follows the above password guidelines. Most people tend to use the same technique when crafting their passwords. The above sample password results in strings of characters and numbers that hackers can easily predict. They can use algorithms that specifically target those weaknesses. And hackers have specific dictionaries for most used passwords. While this password may look secure, it is unsafe. Instead of a password, you can use a passphrase.

A passphrase is a sequence of words that is similar to a password in usage, but is generally longer for added security.

Passphrases are stronger and much longer than passwords. The length of the passphrase makes brute force attacks entirely impractical. A well-chosen passphrase cannot be found in any phrase or quote dictionary making dictionary attacks almost impossible. A passphrase makes it easy for humans to remember and difficult for the hacking algorithms to crack.

You can structure the passphrase to be more easily memorable. For example, a passphrase like 'smith sauce market blind' is not a complex password that you would need to write down somewhere. Hacking algorithms would take centuries to crack this sample passphrase.

Ensure that your passphrase:

As you type your new password, Norton Core displays a password strength rating to let you know how tough it is to crack the current password. Password strength is a measure of how uncrackable a password is by considering the length and complexity of the password.

Norton Core uses the zxcvbn password strength estimator to calculate the strength of your passphrase. Measuring the password strength protects the password from brute-force attacks and makes it impossible for password hackers to guess and crack the password.