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The latest NIST (United States National Institute for Standards and Technology) guidelines on password policies recommend a minimum of 8 characters. Perhaps more interesting is what they recommend against. They recommend against allowing password hints, requiring the password to contain certain characters (like numeric digits or upper-case characters), using knowledge-based authentication (e.g., what is your mother's maiden name?), using SMS (Short Message Service) for two-factor authentication, or expiring passwords after some amount of time. They also provide recommendations on how password data should be stored.
[Ed. Note: Contrary to common practice, I would advocate reading the entire linked article so we can have an informed discussion on the many recommendations in the proposal. What has been your experience with password policies? Do the recommendations rectify problems you have seen? Is it reasonable to expect average users to follow the recommendations? What have they left out?]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @11:19PM
I use a hashing algorithm that I can perform in my head with a printed table to generate my password for each site. When the algorithm generates something that clashes with a site's fancy composition rules, I default to one of a couple memorized passwords depending on the importance of the site.
Without a password manager or a scheme like mine its impossible to remember hundreds of unique passwords. By using fancy composition rules, you make it more difficult to remember the password and thus more likely for the user to just give up and use an old one.