What are researchers suggesting people do to increase password security?

January 23, 2013 By News Staff

Answer: Use poor grammar

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have created an algorithm that they say can crack long passwords that are grammatically correct, Mashable.com reports.

According to the researchers' report, Effect of Grammar on Security of Long Passwords, using long passwords is a promising user authentication mechanism, but "to achieve the level of security and usability envisioned with long passwords, we have to understand the eﬀect of structures present in them. ...We studied grammatical structures, but other types of structures such as postal addresses, email addresses and URLs present within long passwords may have similar impact on security."

The researchers also note that more research is necessary to fully understand the eﬀect of structures on long passwords.

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