Remembering Longer Passwords Easily

July 10, 2008 – 12:46 PM

One of the members of the Master Mind Security Panel during the ITEC show in Charlotte, Dan Colby, made a great point. Basically, he said “quit using passwords.”

Colby is president and CEO of Pinstripe, an application development and consulting company in Charlotte. They provide all the IT services for many area SMBs, including security.

What will replace passwords? Passphrases. Let me quote Colby from an e-mail he sent me about this security idea.

“Passphrases have become the preferred method for password-protecting end user devices. The concept is simple. It is much easier to remember, ‘Let the force be with you’ than it is to remember “!PS12Na#” and the passphrase is often more secure. The longer the passphrase, the more secure it is.”

While Colby said “end user devices” I think passphrases work with devices with good keyboards, like desktop and laptop computers. Smartphones may have keyboards, but few companies can really enforce the use of a decent password on handheld devices, much less a passphrase.

Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148186/remembering_longer_passwords_easily.html