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 3 weeks 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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[–] stoy 52 points 3 weeks 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] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Agreed - the message I was trying to convey is that I use a very secure password, which sacrifices convenience for security - is this necessary though? I have no concerns related to memorising or particular difficulties typing it out as it follows a passphrase structure for the most part.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

If your password was "is this necessary though" it's easy to remember and not difficult at all to type

[–] stoy 1 points 3 weeks ago

If you are only relying on the password as security, then yes, if you use MFA in adition to a password, they also probably yes.

So yes.

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