5 ms·

"My Apple, Twitter, and Gmail passwords were all robust—seven, 10, and 19 characters" He lost me at seven.

ebiester 14y ago
Have you ever had to type that apple password in over and over again? Perhaps it's not robust, but that's Apple's "feature".
- sp332 14y ago
  Especially on a touchscreen keyboard, and/or use a remote control to type it into an Apple TV etc.
- aes256 14y ago
  Most frustrating thing in the world. My AppleID password is pretty secure (~25 characters, upper/lower case, alphanumeric, bunch of symbols, etc.) and having to type it in on an iPhone/iPad every time I want to download an app (even a free app, or updating an app I've already purchased) makes me want to cry.
  - flyinRyan 14y ago
    I don't know what my Apple ID is, it's a random sequence of letters (of various casing), symbols and numbers. I have it stored in a different app, so every time apple asks me for it, I cancel the dialog, open that app, copy the password to clipboard, redo the action and paste. I can do it faster than I can explain how to do it.
krapp 14y ago
my gmail password is close to 40 characters. It would be impossible to manage without keepass. I just assume that any password you can recall from memory is not secure enough.
- ontheotherhand 14y ago
  Ditto. I've switched to generating passwords that are as long as the site allows (well, up to 80 or so, with spaces and special characters and whatnot). I think I'd rather stop reading FUD articles on Wired written by noobs, than give up passwords.
  - Thrymr 14y ago
    Good for you. But 99.9% of people are not as careful, and will never be. You can't change them. They will continue to use the same password of minimum allowed length for multiple sites, and store it in plain text on their desktop. The designers of technology need to be aware of how it is actually used by real people.
- forrestkyle 14y ago
  <i>"I just assume that any password you can recall from memory is not secure enough."</i> Obligatory: http://xkcd.com/936/ http://xkcd.com/936/
  - krapp 14y ago
    I wonder when "correct horse battery staple" will start to become the new "passw0rd123"...
    - jQueryIsAwesome 14y ago
      "Please use a password that is not a copy of one you saw on some famous comic, movie or tv series."
- brazzy 14y ago
  Around 20 characters using something like http://xkcd.com/936/ http://xkcd.com/936/ is both safe and reasonably easy to recall.
  - kscaldef 14y ago
f4stjack 14y ago
But the problem was, as far as I remember, not the weaknesses of his passwords. Hell, the hackers didn't even tried to brute force the keys, they just conned their way in. Time and again, the human factor proved to be the weakest link in the security.

Have you ever had to type that apple password in over and over again? Perhaps it's not robust, but that's Apple's "feature".

sp332 14y ago
Especially on a touchscreen keyboard, and/or use a remote control to type it into an Apple TV etc.
aes256 14y ago
Most frustrating thing in the world. My AppleID password is pretty secure (~25 characters, upper/lower case, alphanumeric, bunch of symbols, etc.) and having to type it in on an iPhone/iPad every time I want to download an app (even a free app, or updating an app I've already purchased) makes me want to cry.
- flyinRyan 14y ago
  I don't know what my Apple ID is, it's a random sequence of letters (of various casing), symbols and numbers. I have it stored in a different app, so every time apple asks me for it, I cancel the dialog, open that app, copy the password to clipboard, redo the action and paste. I can do it faster than I can explain how to do it.

krapp 14y ago

my gmail password is close to 40 characters. It would be impossible to manage without keepass. I just assume that any password you can recall from memory is not secure enough.

ontheotherhand 14y ago
Ditto. I've switched to generating passwords that are as long as the site allows (well, up to 80 or so, with spaces and special characters and whatnot). I think I'd rather stop reading FUD articles on Wired written by noobs, than give up passwords.
- Thrymr 14y ago
  Good for you. But 99.9% of people are not as careful, and will never be. You can't change them. They will continue to use the same password of minimum allowed length for multiple sites, and store it in plain text on their desktop. The designers of technology need to be aware of how it is actually used by real people.
forrestkyle 14y ago
<i>"I just assume that any password you can recall from memory is not secure enough."</i> Obligatory: http://xkcd.com/936/ http://xkcd.com/936/
- krapp 14y ago
  I wonder when "correct horse battery staple" will start to become the new "passw0rd123"...
  - jQueryIsAwesome 14y ago
    "Please use a password that is not a copy of one you saw on some famous comic, movie or tv series."
brazzy 14y ago
Around 20 characters using something like http://xkcd.com/936/ http://xkcd.com/936/ is both safe and reasonably easy to recall.
- kscaldef 14y ago

f4stjack 14y ago

But the problem was, as far as I remember, not the weaknesses of his passwords. Hell, the hackers didn't even tried to brute force the keys, they just conned their way in. Time and again, the human factor proved to be the weakest link in the security.