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Just realized that setting a 16 character password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols is way less secure than using a 4-word random phrase from a book I own.
I got locked out of an old account last week and the 'complex' password I made in 2019 was cracked in under an hour according to the breach report, but my simple 'correct-horse-battery-staple' style phrase from my garage copy of 'Dune' has never been flagged.
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angela5871mo ago
So what four words did you pull from Dune? Always curious about the actual phrases people use. The theory makes sense but the real test is what book and what page. Some books have way more predictable word choices than others.
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laura_schmidt821mo ago
Complexity for its own sake tends to fail in the real world. I see it all the time with over-engineered car parts that break faster than simple, solid designs. A long string of random characters is hard for a human to remember, so we write it down or reuse it. A phrase you can actually keep in your head is often the stronger lock.
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Exactly... my passwords are so simple even the mice in my walls could guess them. But at least I never write them down. The real security flaw is always the human with the sticky note.
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tara6421mo ago
Consider the human habit of writing things down. A complex password gets saved in a notes app or on a sticky note, which is often less secure than a simple phrase you never record. The weakest link is usually our own behavior, not the design itself.
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