Requiring that passwords conform to rules of length, complexity, and unpredictability increases the likelihood of someone gaining unauthorized access to a user's account. █████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████████ ██████ █████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ █████ ████ █████
The author concludes that making people use long, complex, unpredictable passwords actually increases the chances their accounts are hacked. Why? Because it’s hard to access an account by guessing a password anyway, and complex passwords are more difficult to remember, meaning people usually write them down.
The author assumes the risk of a written password being stolen is greater than the risk of a non-complex password being guessed. This means assuming people are more likely to write down a complex password, and that writing down a password increases the chances a person’s account is accessed without authorization.
The overall conclusion of the ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
People who use ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████████
User accounts that ███ █████████████ ██████ █████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████ █ ██████████ █████
When a password ██ ███████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████
When users who ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ █ ███████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ █████████
Passwords that conform ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ███ ████████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██████