There are several online tools helpful to increase the password security . I collected here some blogs posted on the Connect that describes different onlie security services dedicated to different security arguments : how to check if your password is safe, how to generate a strong password or just see if your password is really safe or is a well known word in the wild...
Password definition:
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource (example: an access code is a type of password). The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access. (Wikipedia)
The first step is a create a real secret password, in the following table there is a list of useful resources to generate a safe password.
Create your safe password : Wolfram Alpha. A nice resource to create strong passwords is Wolfram Alpha search engine. This site will generate a random password for you with a full description about the time it would take to crack the password and other interesting security information.
RandomKeyGen , online password generator Just open this site , choose one of randomly generated keys shown in this page. For new passwords simply press F5 for a new refresh keys page.
Here the different keys generated :
Here a section about how resoruces to test if your password is safe. The sites below allows to see if you secret word is powerful enough against a brute force attack.
Test your local Password : Password Security Scanner
Password Security Scanner is a free password tool that allows to test the security of passwords stored locally. This utility scans all passwords stored by popular Windows applications, and the result is a detailed information of every stored password such as total number of characters, number of numeric characters, number of lowercase/uppercase characters, number of repeating characters, and password strength is displayed, without revealing the actual passwords.
Test your password : Strength Test
The Password Checker ( Strength Test - http://rumkin.com/tools/password/passchk.php ) gives an estimation about how strong is this password in terms of strenght, entropy and charset size.
Test your password : TestYourPassword website
A nice resource to test your password is the website TestYourPassword. In a simply interface you can test your passord and see if a psword can be defined weak, good or strong. In the main page you can find also a function to generate a new strong password and if you are interested to know how a password is cracked there is nice video to explain how hacker scan a network for weak passwords and crack them.
How to Create a Safe Password : Passplex
This site allows to generate random strong passwords in a few mouse clicks. Just configure password lenght, complexity , Numbers/Symbols in the password and in few seconds will be generated fresh passwords that cannot be cracked by hackers easily.
Test your password : The Password Meter
This application is designed to assess the strength of password strings. The instantaneous visual feedback provides the user a means to improve the strength of their passwords, with a hard focus on breaking the typical bad habits of faulty password formulation.
Test your password : Microsoft password checker
From Microsoft a online service to check how strong is your password. A strong password should include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in passwords, also avoid any password based on repetition, dictionary words, letter or number sequences.
Test your password : How Secure Is My Password
The How secure is mypassword website shows a different approach about how to manage safe passwords.First of all you have to generate a safe password , then analyze this password in the How secure is mypassword website . The result will be an estimated time to crack the password.
Other sites about general information about security:
Identity Theft and Password Security chart
A visual guide what are the top security mistakes from online passwords , how to enforce your internet security , avoid online risks, etc. There are some interesting considerations, see for example the top3 most commonly used passwords and why hackers prefer to attack online forums and stores , instead to banks online.
The Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time
How Secure is Your Password?
Here an interesting extract of this article:
"As an example of this in the last book, written in 2010, an 8 character password made up of both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols would have taken 2.25 years to crack. The same password now would take just 57 days."
Tools to assist you in case of admin password locked , etc.
Unlock Local Admin password ( MS Windows 2000, XP , Vista and maybe Win 7 )
NTPWEdit is a free tool ( GPL ) that allows to change or remove passwords for local system accounts. This tools supports Windows NT based systems (like Windows 2000, XP and Vista), but could be used also to reset the password of a Windows 7 systems.
Let me know if you have sites or tools to add to this list.