Free Password Strength Meter

The majority of computer users build their passwords using words and numbers they can easily remember, but that is exactly what makes their login keys vulnerable to attacks. There are several password strength measurement tools out there, both online and offline, which can show you just how reliable is a password. One of them is suggestively called Free Password Strength Meter.

There are several criteria that make up a good password: length (8 characters or longer is recommended), the presence of dictionary words, the combination between upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers, and so on. Some of these are used by Free Password Strength Meter to evaluate the effectiveness of your security key, as shown in its main window.

The main criteria are the total entropy and the entropy per character rate, which show the unpredictability of a password. Aside entropy, the used character set and the length of the password are taken into consideration. All the values are calculated as you type the password into the dedicated field.

Based on the aforementioned criteria, Free Password Strength Meter can determine just how strong your password is. Its rating reveals the password’s capability to withstand a brute-force attack.

Passwords can be very unsafe (on the list of popular passwords), very weak, weak (easily crackable), reasonable, good, strong, and very strong. The rating bar changes color as the rating is changed, going for the classic: red for weak, green for strong.

To conclude with, Free Password Strength Meter can give you a strength rating for your password by ticking a small checklist, but that doesn’t mean you should take it as such. It’s for the best to check with other similar applications and compare results before deciding what your password should be.

Strength meters usually disclose a password’s ability to resist a brute force attack but, as you may already know, there are various other cracking methods attackers can try out. Bottom line, if an application such as Free Password Strength Meter says your password is strong, you should not trust it 100%.