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So out of curiosity, as someone who has a nontrivial passcode on his Android device that people constantly mock, how many characters are we talking to be safe.

by 616c 10y ago

So out of curiosity, as someone who has a nontrivial passcode on his Android device that people constantly mock, how many characters are we talking to be safe. I have known for a long time 4 digit numeric PINs are stupid. Sadly the San Bernadino case, for all the wrong reasons, taught me all the alternative auth methods are just as risky. Should I be worried? I don't know. But as a long time Android enthusiast and power user who does not use Google Play on his phone and restrictive permission customization like XPrivacy, I am about to just give up and have a newish iPhone for secure stuff and knock around Android for the cool open source dev I aspire to with F-Droid.

snassar 10y ago
A friend saw me entering my longish, non-trivial passphrase into my android phone and commented that I must not have many friends if I have to enter this passphrase every time to use my phone. For a moment I was torn between being proud in my passphrase and sad at my lack of friends.
- gcr 10y ago
  You bring up an interesting UX issue. If I need to be constantly available to my friends, "number of seconds to a text reply" is something that I need to minimize. Longer passphrases prevent me from sending quick replies.
  - 616c 10y ago
    Some of my more sophisticated friends take this a step further and taunt me for not securely hiding notifications and buying a smart watch. This confuses me because Bluetooth over the air does not strike me a secure mechanism (is it just Bluetooth; ironically scant detail unless my Google-fu is off, likely at this hour for me). http://www.wareable.com/android-wear/android-wear-hack-alert-signalled-by-security-expert-581 http://www.wareable.com/android-wear/android-wear-hack-alert... And do I need yet another smart device? The mobile first movement, with shinier crap, moving away from standard protocols, leads me to believe I have been passively perpetuating the biggest wart on computer science's labors. I am kind of embarassed, a few years in and late to the party, I bought an Android phone at all.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
  What's sad is your friend's superficial criteria for judging sociability.

by 616c 10y ago

snassar 10y ago

A friend saw me entering my longish, non-trivial passphrase into my android phone and commented that I must not have many friends if I have to enter this passphrase every time to use my phone. For a moment I was torn between being proud in my passphrase and sad at my lack of friends.

gcr 10y ago
You bring up an interesting UX issue. If I need to be constantly available to my friends, "number of seconds to a text reply" is something that I need to minimize. Longer passphrases prevent me from sending quick replies.
- 616c 10y ago
  Some of my more sophisticated friends take this a step further and taunt me for not securely hiding notifications and buying a smart watch. This confuses me because Bluetooth over the air does not strike me a secure mechanism (is it just Bluetooth; ironically scant detail unless my Google-fu is off, likely at this hour for me). http://www.wareable.com/android-wear/android-wear-hack-alert-signalled-by-security-expert-581 http://www.wareable.com/android-wear/android-wear-hack-alert... And do I need yet another smart device? The mobile first movement, with shinier crap, moving away from standard protocols, leads me to believe I have been passively perpetuating the biggest wart on computer science's labors. I am kind of embarassed, a few years in and late to the party, I bought an Android phone at all.
kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
What's sad is your friend's superficial criteria for judging sociability.