I started using a password manager last year and updated nearly all of my intern
ID: 661872 • Letter: I
Question
I started using a password manager last year and updated nearly all of my internet accounts to super-strong, unique passwords, and that isn't a problem, cause I only access them from web browsers or my phone, which has said password manager installed.
But device level access is a different story. Having super-strong, unique passwords is really annoying and prone to needing to pull out your phone to remember it. (using secure notes to remember the password)
I tried the strong password for windows logon and ended up changing it back to a weak string-digit password after a day.
Due to active directory network access being tied to device logon means that network access is also weak. Thankfully most practice MFA for remote network access so thats good.
Another password that I had to set back to being a weak string-digit is my itunes account due to having to enter it so often at the app store.
With Windows 8 device access being tied to an outlook account, and appstore access being tied to an itunes account, I really don't know how to approach those.
Ideally I would like to both recommend and PRACTICE super-strong internet account passwords, but easily remembered device access passwords.
So I guess my question is, should passwords vary depending on what is being accessed, and if so, whats the best practice for the different types of access?
Explanation / Answer
A good password is a trade-off between several parameters:
Since it is a trade-off, a password will never be generally perfect.
How often you type the password is an important parameter: the more often you type it, the easier it will be to remember it. For a password which is entered on a daily basis, go for a sequence of random letters (chosen uniformly and independently of each other): this will speed up entry because you can reach a very decent entropy level in relatively few characters (with only lowercase letters, 10 characters already get you to 47 bits of entropy).