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In today's episode, Dr. Michael Mitzenmacher of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University talks to Adam about password security. Mitzenmacher proposes a new approach to creating passwords that may avoid the contunial hassle of password reinvention while still safeguarding personal accounts and information. Currently, many institutions and organizations have devised complicated measures to prevent hackers from breaking into their systems that have the unwanted side effect of making a user's password harder to remember. Because hackers generally attempt to use the most popular passwords to access the greatest number of accounts rather than targeting a particular individual, Mitzenmacher and his colleagues in cryptography have proposed a simpler plan: place restrictions on the number of individuals who can have a particular password in order to minimize the number of accounts that can be compromised in the instance of a hack. Join Adam as he learns why password policies are so complex as well as how new approaches to password creation can ward off unwanted threats and at the same time ensure ease of use. [06:16]
