10 myths about Windows passwords

When I first clicked on this article, I expected to see yet another diatribe telling you to use numbers, mixed-case letters, and special characters when you created a password. Boy was I wrong.

Get past some of the geeky language and you'll find a truly eye-opening story about the security of passwords in Windows.

Some key points from the piece (at least, points that challenge the conventional wisdom of password security):

• Random passwords aren't necessarily more secure. Strings of garbage like Gh&739(*j are hard to remember, easy to mistype, and can be vulnerable to password crackers, especially if they are short.


• The most secure passwords are 15 characters or longer.


• Replacing an "o" with a "0" does nothing for security. Do you really think a hacker can't figure out to try d0g instead of dog? Adding a few digits to a cracking program is no big deal.


• Realistically, changing your password every four months is good enough.


• Documenting your password is not necessarily a bad thing. If a password is written down and stored securely (say, in a safe), this can be useful if an employee quits, for example. Many people store their passwords in a safe deposit box in the event of emergencies, so spouses or children can get access to bank accounts and the like.

From
Yahoo! Tech