Recently, http://www.phpbb.com was the victim of a brute force password attack. Thus, it is likely YWS will be the victim of one as well in the near future (if it hasn't happened already). A brute force password attack occurs when someone creates a computer program that checks a username against a common list of passwords. Since it is done using a program, someone can check thousands of usernames against common passwords in a matter of minutes.
My own account as well as the account to access the server is a common victim of brute force attacks. Fortunately, my password is virtually unhackable. However, I'm sure that's not true for a number of you.
So please make sure your passwords are good passwords. A good password is any combination of the following:
- Upper and lowercase characters
- Numbers
- Special characters (e.g., $, !, #)
- At least 8 characters long
Bad passwords include:
- Names of pets
- Your username
- Password or Password1 (no joke, 'password1' is the most popular password on the internet)
- Any word followed by just '1'
- Just one word
A great way to make a strong password is to use leet (i.e., chatspeak). So instead of, say, hello, use H3110. In combination with that, add two or three numbers and a special character. So it could become, H3110%$24.
For more info. on the phpBB brute force attack (as well as a list of the protections phpBB has against such attacks), see: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1947925
