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

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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.