Password Spraying- Effects and Defence Mechanisms

Password Spraying is an old traditional way used by hackers to hack numerous private accounts by using a set of passwords. You may have heard the fact that hackers use a different password to hack into different accounts.

Well, that also happens and it requires more time and hard work and the chances of getting blocked by the service provider security are very high. I think that we all have faced this situation in our daily life.

Suppose you suddenly forgot your phone password and you try different password combinations several times. The results are that you get blocked by the system for a short period of time. 

The same thing happens when a hacker tries to hack into a private account by trying several password combinations for a single account. That is why password spraying is a way to avoid getting blocked.

Now you may ask how password spraying works and how much are the chances of you getting in a trap of password spraying. Keep your questions open as today I will be discussing all the facts about password spraying and how it can affect you.

First things first, let me give you a brief note on what actually a password spraying looks like. So let’s get started.

A note on Password Spraying    

Very simply said, the process of hacking numerous private accounts by using a similar set of passwords is called Password Spraying. The method is very simple and it can lower the chances of getting blocked by the security providers.

Sometimes people tend to use a similar kind of passwords for their different accounts. And this makes them very much vulnerable to hackers.    

If a hacker gets a large number of the account in their hand then they use the process of password spraying to hack into those accounts. Generally, hackers use this procedure to hack into big business organizations. 

How it can affect you?

This attack mainly depends on someone using a common password for all of their accounts. Unfortunately, our habits of setting a password have not changed over the years. 

According to a study conducted by NCSC, it is evident that 75% of the organization possess at least one account with a password which is common among the top 1000 password list and 87% has a least one account with a password in the top 10,000 list.

Therefore, the concept is the more you use the same password for your accounts the more you get vulnerable to a password spraying attack.

All it takes for the hacker is to find one such account with a common password. If they get into one account then it becomes easier for them to dig down deep and access other accounts of that organization.  

Normally, hackers select those accounts that have a severe penalty for incorrect entries. If the hacker gets information on a web account then he will try a combination of the top 5 common passwords until he gets blocked by the website security.

Feeling scared? 

Don’t be. 

My next section of this blog is about how to defend yourself from a password spraying attack. So let’s move on.

How to protect yourself?

I think you can tell the solution too. It’s very simple. Try to use different kinds of passwords for different accounts. As the concept of password spraying attack totally depends on the pattern or password you set for your account.

Therefore, you can easily avoid these attacks by setting up uncommon strong password that will be really hard to hack. And trust me setting up a unique password is not that hard.

To ensure your safety, I can show you some points in a bulletin format that will help you to set up a good strong password.

  • Always use a unique password.
  • Try to include dates and names which are only known to you.
  • You can go through a common password list before setting up a new password.
  • Try to use a long password that includes alphabets, numbers and special characters.

In the End

Thanks to the latest technologies that prevent us from getting attacked by password spraying scams. Unfortunately, in recent days hackers cannot use this procedure to hack into your account as a big organization has learned the lesson and now they are using high-level security patches for their web accounts.

You should also keep in mind that the advanced technology is also helping the hackers to find new ways to hack into your account. 

But this does not mean that you are always prone to get attacked unless you are using a very weak password for your accounts.

So just play on the safe side and use a strong and unique password for your accounts.