Cable Forum - View Single Post - General Virgin Media urges password change over hacking risk

Kushan · 27-06-2017, 13:06

Even a cluster that size will struggle to brute for a decent long passphrase. 15 characters? Sure, probably in hours, but when you get to the likes of 30+ characters then it becomes an issue even at that scale.

That's only really achievable with a passphrase. To be clear, the most secure password is completely random string of characters, with symbols, letters, numbers (and ideally even unprintable characters :P) however I would argue that this is not the best password. You have to be able to remember a password, or you'll end up writing it down*. That's what I mean when I say "Best" - something that is the correct trade-off between "memorable" and "secure". A pass-phrase with some substitutions is by far the best compromise there.

* Please note that I strongly advocate the use of a password manager for your day-to-day passwords.

27-06-2017, 13:06	#48
Kushan cf.mega poster Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Warrington Posts: 4,737	Re: Virgin Media urges password change over hacking risk Even a cluster that size will struggle to brute for a decent long passphrase. 15 characters? Sure, probably in hours, but when you get to the likes of 30+ characters then it becomes an issue even at that scale. That's only really achievable with a passphrase. To be clear, the most secure password is completely random string of characters, with symbols, letters, numbers (and ideally even unprintable characters :P) however I would argue that this is not the best password. You have to be able to remember a password, or you'll end up writing it down. That's what I mean when I say "Best" - something that is the correct trade-off between "memorable" and "secure". A pass-phrase with some substitutions is by far the best compromise there. Please note that I strongly advocate the use of a password manager for your day-to-day passwords.