Creating a Passphrase

So your IT Team has just mandated new password policies that require to you have 15 characters and a really complex password.

How am I supposed to handle that and remember this nonsense?

Good news, you can create a passphrase. A passphrase is exactly what it sounds like - a phrase. As opposed to a random password that you may or may not remember, a passphrase can be a sentence or phrase that you can easily remember on a daily basis. It can even be about what you ate for lunch!

Let's compare a traditional password to a passphrase:

The strength of a 9 character password

The strength of a passphrase

A simple passphrase brings our character count to 41 (spaces count as characters!), while also including a symbol to meet password strength requirements. This is a simple phrase that is rather easy to remember but nearly impossible to guess, and even more impossible to crack anytime this decade.

Still think you can't create a passphrase?

Let's take a step back and breathe - you can do it if you try. If you can use a keyboard and type out a chat message or an e-mail, then you can type a passphrase. Let's use an angry e-mail as an example.

Here's an e-mail that we've received, really voicing disapproval of this new policy. But wait, somebody was able to take the time to type this out just fine! Let's take a closer look.

This phrase seems to meet our requirements! It's longer than 15 characters (it's 40!), it has uppercase and lowercase letters, and it includes at least 1 special character. I bet I could remember how to type this on a daily basis. What else can we do with this e-mail?

Now it's even longer! A whole 47 characters and it's a breeze to remember. The IT Team will be happy with this, and attackers will be left spinning their wheels trying to crack your new passphrase.

If you can type a message, then you can type a passphrase.