Kill the password: why a string of characters can’t protect us anymore You have a secret that can ruin your life. It’s not a well-kept secret, either. Just a simple string of characters -- maybe six of them if you’re careless, 16 if you’re cautious -- that can reveal everything about you. Your email. Your bank account. Your address and credit card number. Photos of your kids or, worse, of yourself, naked. The precise location where you’re sitting right now as you read these words. Since the dawn of the information age, we’ve bought into the idea that a password, so long as it’s elaborate enough, is an adequate means of protecting all this precious data.
