Cybercriminals have several password-hacking tactics at their disposal, but the easiest one is simply to buy your passwords off the dark web. There’s big money in the buying and selling of login credentials and passwords on the black market, and if you’ve been using the same password for many years, chances are it’s been compromised.

But if you’ve been wise enough to keep your passwords off the aggregated Blackmarket lists, cybercriminals have to crack them. And if that’s the case, they’re bound to use one of the methods below. These attacks can be aimed at your actual accounts or possibly at a leaked database of hashed passwords.

we can create strong passwords that outsmart each attack (though the way to outsmart a phishing scam is simply not to fall for it). Your password is on its way to being uncrackable if it follows these three basic rules.