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Do this now: Set up all your passwords the Snowden way

Published Apr 21st, 2015 1:12PM EDT

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A few weeks ago, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver travelled all the way to Russia to interview Edward Snowden. Snowden, of course is responsible for numerous leaks that revealed the advanced surveillance operations intelligence agencies are capable of nowadays. The interview was particularly enjoyable thanks ti the fact that Oliver’s team was able to present serious matters in very entertaining ways. One of the gems in that episode is related to password security, PopularMechanics points out, with Snowden revealing one key tip that you absolutely should consider when setting up online passwords.

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You of course need to configure hard-to-remember passwords that include symbols, numbers and capital letters, not to mention enough number of characters; a computer can crack eight-character passwords in less than 1 second. But Snowden takes things a step further with a simple but effective idea.

You should set up pass-phrases that aren’t in password dictionaries, and which are so personal that only you could remember. These phrases would be long enough so that computers can’t brute-force their way through them as easily, and also contain the kind of characters mentioned above. 1LoveRead1ngBGREveryDay! might be one example.

For other quick tips on password from Snowden, check the following video:

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.