Password Security--Is there such a thing as "too" complex?
A few months back I was in a public library when I heard two young adults talking as they sat near one of the public computers. "What's your password again?" the first person asked. "starburst123," she replied. "It's what I use for everything." While I had no intention of using this sensitive information I had just overheard, there are many unscrupulous users who would have a heyday with such information. In a digital world, one's entire life is online--your bank account, your personal history, your conversations and emails--all of it protected by that small string of characters that is your password. Users are being told to make their passwords unique, long, and complex. The harder it is to guess, the safer you supposedly are. But a unique string of letters isn't enough--we're now being told to put as many symbols and special characters in our passwords as possible. Instead of a password like "ilikecomputers," you