Passwords

Last week’s post about cloud computing has brought up a few other topics, and one is the vulnerability of your passwords. Randall Stross wrote an informative article that appeared in Saturday’s New York Times titled “Guard That Password (and Make Sure It’s Encrypted).”

In this article, Mr. Stross brings up two key points:
   1. A 10 digit password is much stronger than a shorter one, and
   2. Password resemblance to actual words doesn’t matter, “because the attacker is totally blind to the way your passwords look.”

This second point is quoted from Steve Gibson, a security expert and chief executive of the Gibson Research Corporation, who created the fascinating and informative page How Big Is Your Haystack? where you can learn and experiment with different passwords and character lengths. This is a must-read for anyone who uses passwords online, so I send a big “Thank You” out to both Mr. Stross and Mr. Gibson!

Off to change my passwords now…

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