IT expert regrets complex password advice
Bill Burr says his advice “drives people bananas”.
The IT expert responsible for suggesting people use complex passwords and change them regularly says he regrets the advice – adding it “drives people bananas”.
Bill Burr wrote the guidelines for password security for the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2003 and suggested passwords should be changed every three months and include a range of characters.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Burr said: “Much of what I did I now regret.
“It just drives people bananas and they don’t pick good passwords no matter what you do.”
Simplistic passwords, and their use across multiple accounts, is often cited as one of the biggest causes of widespread cyber breaches – as once account details are compromised in one place that information could then be used to access a range of different accounts.
