By
John Leyden for The
Register
This article has been reproduced from The Register, with
permission.
"People can no longer remember passwords good enough to reliably
defend against dictionary attacks, and are much more secure if they
choose a password too complicated to remember and then write it
down," Schneier writes in his latest Cryptogram newsletter.
Using a password database (such as his own free PasswordSafe utility)
is one option. But Schneier is also enthusiastic about a much more
low-tech approach - think of difficult-to-guess passwords, write
them down and keep them on a bit of paper in your wallet.
"We're all good at securing small pieces of paper. I recommend
that people write their valuable passwords down on a small piece of
paper, and keep it with their other valuable small pieces of paper:
in their wallet," he writes.
The technique could be modified for a little extra security.
"Obscure it somehow if you want added security: write "bank"
instead of the URL of your bank, transpose some of the characters,
leave off your userid. This will give you a little bit of time if
you lose your wallet and have to change your passwords. But even if
you don't do any of this, writing down your impossible-to-memorize
password is more secure than making your password easy to
memorize," he concludes.
© The Register
2005
