At CADLAB.io we understand how important the security aspect is for our users and keeping PCB design files you upload to CADLAB.io as secure as possible is our priority. We employ all the best practices on the server security, maintain strict data processing policies and continuously work on improving security measures on the application level. That’s why in the recent release of CADLAB.io improvements we revised our password security policy. This update is made not because of any type of breach but rather as a proactive action to encourage our users to use more reliable passwords.
 

Using a weak password is one of the most common reasons for unauthorized access. It is natural that people don’t want to come up with another complex password as they already have a hundred of passwords to remember. So one might use something as simple as 123456 just to get quickly into the service to test it. But the sad thing is that people forget to change their password after evaluating the service and attackers are happy to exploit it. And even though we do have the functionality to prevent password brute force attacks, which will suspend users ability to login after a certain number of failed logins, we believe that having a secure password is a necessary measure to be taken.

In our updated password security policy we employed a number of good practices which will make your password stronger. First of all the minimum password length is now 8 characters. The length of the password is one of the very important factors because the longer your password is, the more difficult it is for attackers to crack it. Having at least 8 characters in your password will require attackers to perform a lot more attempts to brute force the password and our system will spot and block such attempts. You should also avoid commonly used passwords which are tried by attackers in the first place. Passwords like “letmein”, “password”, “hello” and even “starwars” will not be accepted by the system. Character sequences like “12345” and “abcd”, keyboard sequences like “qwerty”, repeated characters like “55555” or “aaaaa” or passwords consisting of a series of just digits are also not allowed. It also considered being a bad practice to use your username or email as password and so will not be permitted.
 

Ok, there is a list of don’ts but what about dos? To make your password stronger we suggest to mix lowercase and uppercase letters, add at least one number and punctuation. CADLAB.io will validate your password on the fly and provide you with a hint if it is not strong enough or doesn’t correspond to specific good practice.
 

We know it sounds like a challenge to come up with a strong password which corresponds to all the good practices and is memorable so that you don’t use the password reset link each time you log in. But keeping your account secure is worth the effort, and if you use a password manager, it even becomes an easy task because it can generate a secure password for you and also fill in the login form whenever you visit the website. If you don’t use a password manager yet, we definitely recommend using it. There are multiple free and paid options available so you will certainly be able to find a good match for yourself.
 

In the following releases, we will be adding two-factor authentication to add an additional level of protection to your CADLAB.io account so stay tuned.