Author Archives: Michael Koby

If you were on the internet last week, you probably saw an article, twitter, or Facebook post about the xkcd comic on password strength. The comic, which was (most likely) inspired by an article entitled, “The Usability of Passwords” basically says that using a multi-word password (3 or more words), is more secure than what I have referred to as “complex passwords” in past articles on this blog. The writer of the original article makes the point (which is what the xkcd comic points to) that passwords using three or more dictionary words, has more entropy and is thus harder to crack, therefore making them more secure. While there is a bit of truth to the article, it leads to some false understandings of how hackers actually go about hacking passwords, and make assumptions that aren’t entirely accurate. Continue reading →