Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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How secure does your computer user login password need to be and why? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm aware of what constitutes a decent password, but typing in 15-30 random characters each time I lock my computer screen is starting to get a bit taxing.

How secure does my user password really need to be and what are the threats to it? Does the same apply to a root-enabled user as a "regular" user when it comes to password security?

For context, my threat model doesn't need to account for real people breaking in and accessing my computer, the damage would be very contained.

Bonus question - what are the risks of having a weak password on a root user on a spare laptop on the same network as my main device that is used exclusively for web browsing? Thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 months ago (20 children)

Using random characters is dumb.

It incetivices you to write it down (which in and of itself isn't a completely terrible idea).

As an IT guy, let me tell you, STOP using random passwords!

Use passphrases instead, it is far easier to remember a sentence than a random string of letters and numbers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I just memorize 8 characters of gibberish. It is fast to type in.

I have also used a hybrid approach which is 2-3 words with ransom numbers and symbols

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

https://xkcd.com/936/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

It is fairly easy to remember and not to hard to type in. I struggle with just a word list as I tend to misspell words or make typos. It also takes a while to type.

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