سԹ “Through 20 years of effort, we سԹ ’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess. سԹ ”
– Randall Munroe
سԹ “Humans are actually the biggest problem, سԹ ” says Craig Savolainen, Head of Engineering at سԹ. سԹ “Sure, there سԹ ’s the occasional hacker with a supercomputer hiding in a bunker somewhere, but a more common problem is the millions of people out there with weak passwords, or passwords written on a Post-It note that could fall into the wrong hands. سԹ ”
said the most popular password of 2016 was سԹ “123456. سԹ ” Second place was, سԹ “123456789. سԹ ” Some of us think we سԹ ’re being clever by replacing certain letters with numbers or symbols, such as, سԹ “Pas5w*rd, سԹ ” but Craig isn سԹ ’t buying it.
سԹ “First of all, it سԹ ’s not really that easy to remember. Do you replace the first سԹ ‘s سԹ ’ or the second سԹ ‘s سԹ ’ with a سԹ ‘5? سԹ ’ And secondly, it سԹ ’s only eight characters long with some common character substitutions that a computer would be able to guess within a few hours or days. سԹ ”
So how do you make a password that سԹ ’s so easy to remember that it doesn سԹ ’t need to be written down, but still so hard to guess that nobody will crack it? Craig سԹ ’s advice is surprisingly simple:
سԹ “There are 473,000 words in the English language. You can create a great password by linking any four of them together with a dash or a dot between them. Something like, سԹ ‘lamp-carpet-earphones-zeppelin سԹ ’ is easy to remember سԹ — you can even make a little story in your head to help سԹ — but ridiculously hard to guess. There are 473,000-to-the-fourth-power possible word combinations, and that could take a computer centuries to guess. سԹ ”
OK, so let سԹ ’s say you have a really amazing password for all your online accounts, including سԹ. What are we doing to keep you secure? There are several measures in place, but Craig highlights three of the big ones:
Craig adds that سԹ takes all of these steps by choice, not by decree. سԹ “There aren سԹ ’t a ton of regulations that tell us what to do. We have chosen to set the bar this high because protecting our clients is essential to the success of our business.
A lot of what others consider سԹ ‘security measures, سԹ ’ we consider foundational. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a non-regulatory agency of the US Department of Commerce and a global thought leader on how to make the Internet more secure. We point to them to make sure سԹ follows the highest standards.
Security concerns will probably always be a fact of life, but the layers of protection at سԹ should be enough to put anyone at ease.
سԹ “My first choice would be to eject all the bad guys from planet Earth, سԹ ” Craig says wistfully. سԹ “But until that day, the answer is to have better passwords and a well-designed system like ours. سԹ ”
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