Edward Snowden tells John Oliver how to fix your awful internet passwords

Edward Snowden explains how to create a better online password
(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

Your online passwords are terrible. You know that. On Last Week Tonight, Edward Snowden explained to John Oliver why that matters. "Bad passwords are one of the easiest ways to compromise a system," he said. "For someone who has a very common eight-character password, it can literally take less than a second for a computer to go through the possibilities and pull that password out."

Oliver tested out some passwords in front of Snowden, and it turns out misspelling common words or sticking in a number ("4eva") won't help you. "The best advice here," Snowden said, "is to shift your thinking from passwords to passphrases." His suggestion: something like "margaretthatcheris110%SEXY" — which is not only harder to crack but probably also easier to remember than a 13-character mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. John Oliver was impressed: "Wow, that is a password that not even a computer would guess." Now you know, but as Oliver made clear, knowing is just half the battle. —Peter Weber

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.