Perp 1: dpxaker
Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues where we will share tips on how to make life difficult for cybercriminals. This week we will investigate real cybercriminal, Dariy Pankov.
Dariy Pankov
Alias: dpxaker
Weakness: Long, unique passwords
Dariy Pankov, known among hackers as “dpxaker,” paid for his lavish lifestyle by selling password-cracking software to criminals for just $250 – no subscription required. Powered by his program, hackers don’t have to sit in a dark room guessing passwords one at a time – dpxaker’s software and AI tests thousands of password combinations every second. He has a soft spot for pet names and birthdays and he really loves short passwords and reused passwords!
What You Can Do…
Make dpxaker’s life more difficult by creating strong password using the following guidelines:
- Every password should be at least 16 characters long
- Every password needs to be unique to the account
- Every password should be a random mix of letters, numbers, and symbols
- Use a password manager to create and store awesome passwords – they are safe, easy to
use, and many are even free!
Remember…
An 8-character password can be cracked in seconds, no matter how many &s and !s you use. A complex 16-character password takes billions of years to crack – and hackers don’t have that kind of time
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Attributes: Portions of the written content from this blog was adapted from the Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026 Toolkit published by Stay Safe Online National Cybersecurity Alliance. All images were designed by the IS Digital Solutions Administrator, Katrina Naoko Frank.