Is your password as secure as you think? Test it out with this tool

We all use several passwords for the different web services we use daily. The issue is, are these passwords as secure as we think, or have they ever been hacked? The answer to this question is found on Pwned Passwords.

Pwned Passwords is a website created by security expert Troy Hunt. What he’s done is compiled all the passwords that have ever been compromised and, thus, have led to potential victims of data theft by hackers.

This information has been turned into a simple search engine where by entering any sequence of characters, you’ll know if it has been compromised before or not.

Does your result pop up in red? That’s because this password appears in the database of affected passwords. If you’re using it for any service, change it immediately.

Does your result show up in green? Great, this password hasn’t been compromised, but don’t trust it quite yet: this doesn’t mean it’s secure or it hasn’t ever been compromised, just that it’s not on the list.

Besides offering this useful tool, Troy Hunt has published some tips about passwords on this same website. Here’s the lowdown:

• Try not to reuse your passwords too much.
• Check out this guide with tips.
• Download pwned’s password list that you can find on Hunt’s same page. Keep in mind that this list takes up over 5GB zipped and 11GB unzipped… Consider it if you have data!

Do you think your passwords are secure?

Yes, of course!
No, I admit I can improve them…