People over 55 pick more secure passwords than 25-year-olds

[Hum]

Sorry, gen Y: Your parents are smarter about safety online.

Despite the digital savvy of younger generations, people over age 55 pick passwords that are twice as secure as those chosen by people under age 25, according to a new study by University of Cambridge computer scientist Joseph Bonneau.

?There is a general trend towards better password selection with users? age,? Bonneau wrote in his study, the largest ever of password security, which was presented at the 2012 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

Take that, millennial generation!

But before older websurfers start crowing, take note of Bonneau?s larger conclusion: no one makes passwords that are secure enough, regardless of age.

?The most troubling ending of our study is how little password distributions seem to vary ? with effective security varying by no more than a few bits,? he wrote.

On average, he found that it would only take around 1,000 attempts to try every possible password and eventually crack them, according to an analysis in New Scientist. That's surprising, because even a randomly chosen six-character password composed of digits and upper and lower case letters should offer far more security.

Lujo Bauer, who studies passwords at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., told New Scientists that Bonneau?s findings were legitimate.

"This is one of the rare studies based on a large set of passwords that are actively used and have been obtained legitimately," he said.

source

[.Neo]

My computer account password contains:

Uppercase letter(s)

Lowercase letter(s)

Number(s)

Symbol(s)

My mom's computer account password contains:

Four numbers

Hmmm...

[Japlabot]

I am guilty of weak passwords. I have signed up to 1000s of websites since I use the web quite often and I've found it almost impossible to keep truly secure passwords which I can remember. I have recently started using LastPass and compiling a list from all the registration emails of what I have signed up for so I can work out which ones need a secure password (which can be remembered using LastPass) and which ones are not important and can just use a generic password with little variation as I've been doing.

[Max Norris]

Old fart who uses LastPass, each one is a random mix of 16 characters/symbols. Couldn't remember them if I tried, might be senility, I forget if I have that or not.

Now one of these days I just have to change the LastPass master password to something other than "1234". (/s)

[tiagosilva29]

hunter2

[Hum]

My passwords are mediocre -- but if they were complicated gibberish, I'd forget them.

I'd have to write them down.

And I can't think of who the heck would really be interested in my on-line visits. :laugh:

[Growled Member]

I use lastpass and I can make my passwords as crazy as I want and never have to worry about remembering them.