{"id":33458,"date":"2020-02-21T20:06:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T20:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1ea9c4b9-b8f5-412e-bbf3-4f72a7090a53"},"modified":"2020-02-21T20:06:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T20:06:43","slug":"fbi-recommends-passphrases-over-password-complexity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/fbi-recommends-passphrases-over-password-complexity\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI recommends passphrases over password complexity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"login<\/span><\/p>\n

For more than a decade now, security experts have had discussions about what’s the best way of choosing passwords for online accounts.<\/p>\n

There’s one camp that argues for password complexity by adding numbers, uppercase letters, and special characters, and then there’s the other camp, arguing for password length by making passwords longer.<\/p>\n

This week, in its weekly tech advice column known as Tech Tuesday, the FBI Portland office positioned itself on the side of longer passwords.<\/p>\n

“Instead of using a short, complex password that is hard to remember, consider using a longer passphrase,” the FBI said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This involves combining multiple words into a long string of at least 15 characters,” it added. “The extra length of a passphrase makes it harder to crack while also making it easier for you to remember.”<\/p>\n

Passphrases are harder to crack<\/h3>\n

The idea behind the FBI’s advice is that a longer password, even if relying on simpler words and no special characters, will take longer to crack and require more computational resources.<\/p>\n

Even if hackers steal your encrypted password from a hacked company, they won’t have the computing power and time needed to crack the password.<\/p>\n

\n<\/section>\n

Academic research<\/a> published in 2015 supports this argument, explaining that “the effect of increasing the length dwarfs the effect of extending the alphabet [adding complexity].”<\/p>\n

The FBI’s advice echoes a now-infamous XKCD webcomic<\/a> that made the concept of passphrases-over-passwords widely known among internet users.<\/p>\n

\"password-strength.png\"<\/span>

\"password-strength.png\"<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/noscript> Image: XKCD.com\/936\/<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, there are web services<\/a> that will help you generate passphrases in the XKCD style.<\/p>\n

There are also open-source libraries<\/a> that developers can use to add an auto-generate passphrase function in their apps.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, NIST password recommendations<\/a> issued in 2017 have also urged websites and web services to accommodate longer password fields of up to 64 characters for this same reason — to let users choose passphrases instead of short passwords.<\/p>\n

The same NIST guideline also recommended using passphrases over passwords when possible, a recommendation also picked up in a DHS security tip<\/a> issued in November 2019, also urging users to give passphrases a try.<\/p>\n

CorrectHorseBatteryStaple!<\/p>\n

READ MORE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longer passwords, even consisting of simpler words or constructs, are better than short passwords with special characters.
\nREAD MORE HERE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zdnet-security"],"yoast_head":"\nFBI recommends passphrases over password complexity 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/fbi-recommends-passphrases-over-password-complexity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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