Keep it Simple, Stupid: Why the Usual Password Policies Don't Work, and What to Do About It

Common password policies don’t really work; they’re annoying and users still end up with bad passwords. How does one devise a password policy that both manages risk yet remains usable by its users? We present the fundamental problem with common password policies, and how we approached a solution, looking at the effectiveness of password strength rules in combination with human factors. Our result gives us measurable strength and improves usability, without password aging.

The talk will look at the history of password policies, a formal view of password attacks, the usability issues of passwords, and our experiences with our solution.

Abe Singer is the Chief Security Officer for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and formerly the Chief Security Officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center. He has been at times a programmer, system administrator, security geek, consultant, and expert witness. He is based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Warren Anderson is a Visit­ing Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and is effectively the project manager for the LIGO Identity and Access Management Infrastructure. His publications are primarily on black holes and gravitational waves; he has just begun his foray into the world of computer security.