The CWNP Question of the Day (QOTD)

A dictionary attack consists of trying 'every word in the dictionary' as a possible password for an encrypted message. A dictionary attack is generally more efficient than a brute force attack, because users typically choose poor passwords. Dictionary attacks are generally far less successful against systems that use passphrases instead of passwords.
The longer the password, the more combinations must be tried before it is successfully cracked.
A strong password has the following characteristics:
- Contains at least eight characters.
- Contains characters from each of the following three groups:
- Uppercase and lowercase letters (A, a, B, b, C, c, and so on)
- Numbers
- Symbols (such as ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + - = { } | [ ] \ : ; ' < > ? , . /)
- Contains at least one symbol character in the second through sixth positions
- Is significantly different from passwords previously used
- Does not contain your name or user name
- Is not a common word or name