The annoying conflict between weak/rememberable passwords

[webecedarian]

Does this annoy anyone else - the tendency to force people to choose passwords so complex that they're unlikely to be remembered?

Your Wi-Fi Security Is Probably Weak. Here’s How to Fix That.
By Brian X. Chen

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/t...-security.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/t...-security.html


It makes a lot of sense for people doing highly personal, highly confidential things, but I don't do anything that private, and nothing financial, so I just don't care. I don't think it's likely that anyone is going to stalk me and trash whatever they can find. What I imagine is much more likely is that a hacker steals everything from the whole company or website.

[TenFour]

Use a password manager for most things and no need to ever remember most of your passwords. It really doesn't matter what they ask for.

[alexu2007]

How to choose a strong password and remember it

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHCEMGOWsAA2uzi.jpg

[webecedarian]

Originally Posted by TenFour

Use a password manager for most things and no need to ever remember most of your passwords. It really doesn't matter what they ask for.

I'm not sure what you mean, "It really doesn't matter what they ask for."

If you are signing up for something that demands at least 10 characters and must include numbers AND signs AND capitals, then it requires that you comply and will reject any password not complying.

[lpn]

Originally Posted by webecedarian

I'm not sure what you mean, "It really doesn't matter what they ask for."

If you are signing up for something that demands at least 10 characters and must include numbers AND signs AND capitals, then it requires that you comply and will reject any password not complying.

Many password managers allow you to set these requirements when generating new passwords.

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by webecedarian

I'm not sure what you mean, "It really doesn't matter what they ask for."

If you are signing up for something that demands at least 10 characters and must include numbers AND signs AND capitals, then it requires that you comply and will reject any password not complying.

KeePass Password Safe give you the ability to save password profiles for sites that have specific requirements.

Here is an example from one site I use:

The PASSWORD must:

    be 9 to 30 characters in length
    contain at least one UPPERCASE letter (A-Z)
    contain at least one lowercase letter (a-z)
    contain at least one number (0-9)
    contain at least one of the following special characters: # @ $ ^ ! * + = _ %
    change at least four characters from the previous Password

The PASSWORD CANNOT:

    contain spaces
    be one of your 5 previous passwords

My settings in order as listed.

Length of generated password: 20
Upper-case (A, B, C, ...) checked.
Lower-case (a, b, c, ...) checked.
Digits (0, 1, 2, ...) checked.
Minus (-) not checked.
Underline (_) checked.
Space ( ) not checked.
Special (!, $, %, &, ...) not checked.
Brackets ([, ], {, }, (, ), <, >) not checked.
Latin-1 Supplement (Ä, µ, ¶, ..) not checked.
Also include the following characters: #@$%^!*+=

I can save this as a profile and use it every time I need to generate a new password which for this site is every 150 days.

Here is more information on KeePass's Password Generator.

I currently have 7 profiles saved.