The Man Who Wrote Those Password Rules Has A New Tip: N3v$R M1^D!

Great article in the Wall Street Journal this week (paywall), on the history of passwords and password management. I did not know that the seeming obsession with passwords featuring a strange mixing of capital letters, numbers and !@#$%^&*()+ derives from a 2003 National Institute of Standards and Technology report, "NIST Special Publication 800-63. Appendix A." This report advised computer users to protect their accounts by using the now familiar mélange of characters, capital letters and numbers—and to change those passwords regularly.  Of course, that resulted in people using just a few passwords and writing them down because they were difficult to remember.  In the end, the guidance made systems less safe.