How to Choose a Good Password
Posted by Michael Santarcangelo on March 15, 2009 · 2 Comments 
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Michael connects with people, shifts their thinking and creates situations where individuals are naturally inspired to change their behaviors. As a bridge between technology and the user experience, Michael focuses on the positive – acknowledging the good work of the users, amplifying their actions and revealing to them they have the power – and the responsibility – to act to protect information. With wit and clarity, he freely shares unique insights, innovative approaches and effective solutions that are informed by both experience and research.
Thanks guys! I was looking for a good clip to segue into a brief discussion about basic password policies over at the Intern’s Revenge blog. Although I was a little surprised about advising people to use two dictionary words as a “strong password.” Am I alone in thinking that’s not good practice?
Strength is determined as a factor of the overall “key space” and the length. Assuming uppercase, lowercase digits and non-alpha characters are allowed, then the longer password is better. While we like to beat people about the head and shoulders to suggest they need to choose inane combinations as a password, taking two words that they know, and joining them together with some non-standard characters creates a long password that should not fall prey to dictionary attacks.