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Massive data dump containing millions of passwords sparks security alert: Is your data safe? (www.techspot.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Many PW managers let you generate passphrases, which are all around better than random strings. Length is the most important factor so

finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen

Is way stronger and easier to remember (and type) than

Fl7$j4FWw)&5O

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Huh, TIL. I had no idea that was an option but that's super useful for things I need to type in on a device with no keyboard, or even things I can't access my password manager for. Thanks for the protip there!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is it really safer? I mean when trying to bruteforce a password, one would have to make a guess whether it's a passphrase or not. But if you decided to check for pass phrases, wouldn't the one you posted be cracked in 5 times the amount of words in that dictionary? I'm not sure how large the vocabularies of the generators are, but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password

And you would be very wrong about that. A 5 phrase password has entropy. "finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen" is 28 characters. If you add in a different symbol between the words and add a number somewhere, this password becomes incredibly difficult to brute force.

I'll let xkcd explain it better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Youre right,different separators, numbers and even capital letters change my theory alot

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It'd be dictionary length to the fifth power, not times five.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

And pass phrases are faster to type and with less typos even though they need more characters than passwords to be the same secure.