Strong passwords: British officials recommend 3 random word rule

Secure passwords – still an important topic. (Image: HAMIK/Shutterstock)

The idea is not new. But the UK Cyber Security Agency again strongly recommends the 3 random word rule for secure passwords. But even this is not 100% certain.

In October 2016, the British cyber security authority NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) recommended using a combination of three randomly selected words to recommend secure passwords. The NCSC named the term coffeetrainfish or waltinshirt, for example. The idea behind it: Passwords created this way are easier to remember, are longer than some of the passwords used in the past – such as wife’s name – and are overall more difficult to crack. Now NCSC has strictly enforced the rule again.

3 random words more secure than complex passwords

According to this, passwords found in this way – such as the Chair Coin socket – may be more effective and thus more secure against attacks from cybercriminals than more complex passwords. after all, so expert, they targeted such passwords precisely. For example, if you only replace the two letters s with the digit five in your password and o with a zero and an exclamation mark, you must meet the requirements for creating passwords, for example for online accounts. Cybercriminals used to check this type of letter-number combination long ago.

NS enforcement of complexity requirementsAccording to officials, as opposed to intended use, such as mandatory use of special characters and numbers, makes passwords more predictable. Passwords created from three random words, on the other hand, are longer and harder to predict. In addition, letter combinations are used that were more difficult to identify for algorithms used by cybercriminals, according to the NCSC.

easy to remember three random words

However, experts point out that the three random word rule is not 100 percent safe. The big advantage is that it is easier for users to remember a password composed of three randomly chosen passwords than a really complex password made up of a large number of letters, numbers and special characters. Ultimately, of course, this is the safest way use a password managerBut their acceptance is still very low. if you . see lists of most used password – a password1234 – um, NCSC may have something in its view.