Feature request: generate mobile-friendly passwords (so my girlfriend stops using her birthdate)
I am a software developer, so naturally I am very concerned about security. Which is why I use 1Password and very long, random passwords. My girlfriend and her family, not so much. They use their birth dates (!) as passwords so that they won't forget them. I've been on a year-long campaign to try to change that habit, with no success.
One of the main problems is that they almost never use laptops: they're almost always on their mobile devices. And entering long, random passwords on their mobile devices is hell. Switching between lowercase, uppercase, numbers and special characters takes a ton of time.
Another main problem is that they're Chinese, and thus use Chinese services like Taobao (the Chinese Paypal). Many of these services, in their infinite wisdom, disallow copy-paste for "security reasons". Even though it's bullshit for users of password managers, I kind of understand. Most regular users don't use password managers at all, so if they copy-paste it's likely from their instant messaging program, email, or some other insecure place. The authors of those services probably want to prevent their password from being stored in an insecure place.
Because of these factors, my girlfriend gave up on random passwords despite my insistence. After having entered the wrong password for the third time (with each attempt taking a minute), she changed her Taobao password back to her birth date.
So I would like to request a 1Password feature: please make it easy to generate passwords that are moderately secure, yet easy to type on a mobile device.
Comments
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Thanks so much for taking the time to try and educate your girlfriend and her family in the importance of strong and unique passwords. While we don't have an option for this in 1Password's password generator at this time, I strongly recommend that you look into Diceware passwords. Diceware is perhaps best explained in this xkcd comic:
Essentially, instead of worrying about random passwords created with letters and numbers and symbols that are difficult to remember and even worse to type, you randomly select 4 or 5 words and use them as your password. The random method of selection ensures that it is much more secure than using a common phrase (which password crackers are now trained to look for), but even though the words are random, your brain will have a much easier time remembering.
Personally, I'd love to see a Diceware feature added to our password generator (and I can certainly tell our developers that you'd be interested in seeing an option like this as well!) In the meantime, you can read a bit more about how to create strong passwords in our blog post here: Towards Better Master Passwords
I hope this helps, but we're here if you have any further questions or concerns!
ref: OPM-1482
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Yes, please add one. At this point I don't really care anymore how it's generated, as long as she can easily input it on her phone. Anything is better than using her birth date.
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Thanks again for the feedback - I've told our developers that you're keen to see this feature. :)
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