This sixth grader will sell you strong passwords for $2 a pop

Mira Modi
(Image credit: Twitter.com/DaveKAtDell)

If your password for everything is literally "password," there's an entrepreneurial sixth grader in New York City you might want to talk to. Mira Modi, 11, started dicewords.com for people who don't want to get hacked, but also don't want to take the initiative to avoid getting hacked.

Modi creates passwords by hand using a system called Diceware: She rolls a six-sided dice and then matches the string of random numbers she gets to a list of English words. Each completed password is six English words combined together, so it's both easy to remember and tough to crack. If you're new to the system, the xkcd comic Modi references on her site is a fun starting point.

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So far, Modi has delivered about 30 passwords for $2 each via snail mail and in-person transactions, she told Ars Technica. She learned the technique from her mother, who wrote Dragnet Nation, a book about privacy.

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Modi hasn't had much luck paying the skill forward in her social circle, however. "This whole concept of making your own passwords and being super secure and stuff, I don't think my friends understand that, but I think it's cool," she said.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.