Sometimes "Complex Passwords" Can Be Dangerous
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 5/19/2016 1:00:00 AM
Sometimes "Complex Passwords" are essential. Sometimes they're not.
Strong Passwords are the kinds of passwords that are designed to be harder to guess because they're longer, and require you to use a mixture of capital letters, numbers and even punctuation characters.
Since Strong Passwords are designed to protect you from bad guys, you may be wondering why I'm telling you how dangerous they can be. For this that hold personal or financial information, a Strong Password is essential. In fact, I think those kinds of sites not only should have Strong Passwords, they should also require a 2-step verification that sends validation codes via your phone.
My problem isn't with those kinds of sites. I have a big problem with sites that don't hold private information that ask you for a Strong Password, and here's why.
Let's say you want to post a comment on an obscure Sponge Bob or Pac-Man blog, and the blog owner requires you to use a "Strong Password" that contains at least 6 characters, at least one capital letter, and a number. Because it's hard to remember a complex password like that, there's a pretty good chance a lot of the members will use the same Strong Password for that site as they do for some of their other, more secure websites.
When you use a Strong Password for an obscure site, the site owner may try to use the password you gave them to try to access your other accounts.
It comes down to a matter of trust. While it's perfectly okay to use the same Secure Password for multiple accounts from trusted companies, you need to think twice before using that password on a less trusted site, or that site owner could turn out to be an identity thief.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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