passwords

Prompted by blow-up over Chrome's apathy about password security, expert urges Google to lock passwords with a master key

When it comes to information security, there are a lot of "misperceptions" and "exaggerations" about both the threats facing businesses and the technologies that might be used to protect their important data assets. For example, myth #10: "Encryption is the best way to keep your sensitive files safe"

It's hard to imagine an idea more inane than passwords. Their only redeeming value, from my perspective as a security professional, is that our reliance on them guarantees my children a decent college education.

A password made up of a phrase or short sentence may be more secure than a carefully constructed long one, countering the recommendations of some security experts.

Google engineers say they have been experimenting with hardware that would act as a master key for online services.

At the risk of repeating myself (see “What you don’t know about passwords might hurt you”), the best way to ensure that you never forget your passwords is to offload the task of remembering to a password manager such as 1Password (; $40). For most passwords, most people, and most of the time, that’s the only trick you’ll need. However, no matter what tools you use, you’ll have to memorize at least a few passwords. Because those are among your most important, you don’t want to trade security for memorability. Here a few tips that can help you make sure your brain doesn’t betray you.

I don’t mean to alarm you, but -- well, actually I do. Your password strategy, if you have one at all, might be seriously out of date.