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Google mandates longer Apps passwords
Strong, carefully-crafted passwords are imperative nowadays. Google seems to agree, and the company has announced that it is now requiring all Apps for Domains passwords to be a minimum of 8 characters -- two more than the previous limit.How much difference can two measly characters make? Plenty. A quick test with a few different combinations over at How Secure is My Password bumped the time-to-crack from 8 seconds (6 characters) to more than a day. That's a substantial difference, and it's nice to see Google enforcing the 8-character minimums.
If you can handle something longer, go for it. You're only going to make things harder for the bad guys, after all. A bump to 10 characters pushes your time-to-crack to about 10 years.
Comments
5
Subscribe to comments2late2dieMar 16th 2011 9:22AM
More big name websites need to start enforcing stricter password. Not just length, but something like at least one digit and at least one capital letter as well. With people putting more and more of their lives online it's more important than ever to have good security, but people won't get it until they are forced to. I still routinely see very simple passwords, and event he occasional "12345", but with password managers built in into browsers and the myriad of extensions, what the hell is their excuse.
JoshMar 16th 2011 10:41AM
My Gmail account actually got spammed today by an old dummy Gmail account I made years ago for sites I thought might send spam. Password was only 6 characters. Funny how that works.
Thankfully I came to my senses years ago and my actual account is 28 alphanumeric characters now that changes every three months.
SilverWaveMar 17th 2011 5:06PM
@Josh
2 factor!
Turn it on man!
SilverWaveMar 17th 2011 5:06PM
Who the hell just uses 6 characters!
I would suggest a pass phrase (something memorable to you) and 2factor e.g.
"9marY-haD-A-littlE-lamB"
Reasonable passwords and 2 factor is the way to go.
Google are getting there.
BatarangMay 12th 2011 11:47PM
I have a difficult time trying to get folks to use something more complex than "applejack20". Google doesn't help by saying that password is "Strong". Please....strong my @$$.