“I was asked to do a favor for one of my friends. You may feel it strange but being his close mate I had no other chance but to do it. The task is to crack the password of someone’s Email !! What shall I do now? I know that something what I am going to do is not correct. But I have to go ahead for my Friend. So after going home straight from my college, I started doing the job.
First I gave a few futile attempts like his name, surname and names of his close friend’s, parents and siblings. Later I came to know that I cannot waste the time here. So I moved a step ahead and I Googled (as I find many of my queries by doing so) with the tag “Most commonly used passwords“. I tried them too adding a few of my smart guesses too. But I failed.
Next again I stepped ahead and typed his Email and started thinking. At that point I found a sentence with little alphabets saying “Forgot your Password?”. I just clicked it. Whoa! I got another path to go forward. Now I came so close enough to crack it that I have just two more hurdles in the form of questions. Yes! the Security questions which we answer in a hurry while setting up a new account.
First one: Where is your Birth Place?
Second Question: What is your Mother maiden name?
At the moment I saw those questions I almost lost my remaining hopes. Because I just knew the persons name, Email ID and may be I have seen him twice from distance. It’s the time for me again to say a “big thanks” to the powerful word “FACEBOOK”. Yes! I abruptly opened my Facebook and searched the people with his name and finally arrived at his profile. With in a couple of minutes I was in a state that I can answer any question regarding him. Now I have successfully completed my job and got hold on his account. Next day I gave my friend the gift of his account and also a bonus. His all other accounts!! Yes!! Because the same password which I got is the password for his all other accounts.”
So what have we learnt from this! Let me say in order:
- Never harm others and give them a thought of cracking your passwords.
- Never sign up in a hurry.
- Never answer the security questions correctly.
- Never ever keep the same password for more than one account.
- Finally which I intended to advice you is to use a password manager.
Password managers are the best solution which I find after spending hours together cracking his password and at the same time to safe guard mine!!. Password managers serve many purposes like
- Storing your passwords.
- Generating stronger ones.
- Filling the forms automatically.
- Syncing your confidential stuff across all your devices including mobile phones.
One thing most people worry about is “If I store those passwords in cloud, then it is like storing my wealth under the bench of a public garden”. I can confidently answer your question with a big NO. Wake up guys, the technology is becoming sophisticated day by day. All our stuff will be Encrypted so that no one can understand it without entering into our vault with our Master Password. I can suggest you some but I just wanna leave that simple task to you. Go ahead and Google them. But I can give you a filtered list of best password managers.
Go ahead and read some reviews and choose which one best suits you.
Now I would like you to navigate to http://howsecureismypassword.net/ and check how strong is your password and how long it will take to crack it!!
watzonyourmind. 
Too good… interesting read. 🙂