We are all familiar with the traditional keyboard password that has been used for a while. But did you know another passwords creation method with emoji makes your account safe and more complex to hack?
They could be almost twice as strong and more easily remembered if you add emojis to your passwords.
According to one of the leading cybersecurity firms, which has started calling for Internet users to make use of colourful icons in order to improve online security.
Although people are aware that numbers, symbols and special characters can all help strengthen passwords, only some are familiar with the possibility of using emojis on certain websites.
They’re much more complicated to remember than hackers or other cybercriminals can figure out.
The cybersecurity firm Kaspersky argues that thousands of emojis are out there, compared to a few letters and numbers, which is much more difficult for hackers to guess or get.
Stan Kaminsky of Kaspersky added “When intruders try to brute-force a password containing letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, there are fewer than a hundred variations for each symbol they need to pick. But there are more than 3600 standardized emojis in Unicode, so adding one to your password forces hackers to go through around 3700 variants per symbol”.
“So, in terms of complexity, a password made up of five different emoticons is equivalent to a regular password of nine characters’ while seven emojis is equivalent to a strong password of 13 “regular” characters.”
- The most common advanced use of emoji passwords are:
- It is easier to join compared to the traditional Unicode passwords.
- It makes it difficult for hackers to trace an emoji password.
- Traditional web services will accept emoji passwords (for example, Dropbox and OpenAI)
The most common disadvantages of using emoji passwords are:
- Not all services will accept emoji passwords (for example, Gmail, Outlook)
- Emojis are more challenging to enter on some devices
- The use of emojis may be because there are similar emojis available
- Sometimes, emojis may not pass verification when signing
You will learn more from Kaspersky on how to create emoji passwords to make your accounts safe.