As you can see below add 4 characters to a password with no complexity rules makes the password much more secure than requiring adding special characters like uppercase, lowercase, digits and symbols

Passwords are (one of) the biggest pain(s) in today’s IT security. They are a factor of life, and the modern lifestyle requires us to have a great many of them. So we need to make sure we’re aware of what is a strong and a secure password.

NIST Guidelines for Password Security: If You Are Using a Password Manager, You Should Be in Good Shape

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a federal agency that is part of the US Department of Commerce which means that although it doesn't have any regulatory functions, it employs plenty of people that are supposed to know what they're talking about. For years, NIST has discussed, among other things, the problem of secure online authentication and passwords.

** A huge thanks to the MS Crypto Board for all of the hand-holding and explanations -- especially David LeBlanc, Michael Scovetta, and Marsh Ray.

For the purpose of this post, the following definitions will be used:

The company now says forcing users to routinely reset passwords at pre-set time intervals doesn't work as well other security options.

Microsoft last week recommended that organizations no longer force employees to come up with new passwords every 60 days.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued new guidelines regarding secure passwords. Who is NIST? NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency whose purpose is to promote U.S.

There are actually several things you need to keep in mind when creating and using passwords, but a good password manager will help you take care of the two most important ones. It will make sure all your passwords are long and strong, and it will also make sure each password is used for only one account.