Experts say three random words is still one of the best passwords

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The UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Center would like to politely remind you that three random words is a good, secure password. Why do I tell you this? Because everything, increasingly, wants you to have a unique account and password to serve it.

Citing many ideas such as length, impact, novelty, and ease of use as reasons for choosing three-word passwords, the NCSC recommends a three-word password because it bypasses some of the more common ways that criminals crack passwords. These are things like single words with expected replacements (5 for S, or ! for 1) and brute force techniques that rely on shorter passwords to achieve success. “A typical password is a single word or name in a dictionary, with predictable character replacement,” says the NCSC.

In contrast, a three-word password is something you can realistically remember or store in a safe place like a password manager. It is also easy to adopt and modify according to the requirements of different sites, rather than generating random strings of characters.

You can read the full post about the value of a three-word password, or passphrase, on the NCSC website. It’s an accessible breakdown.

The three-word password is one of the most popular topics in the NCSC, it seems, even about five years after I first wrote about it. A recent blog post revisits the idea in light of developments since then and concludes that, yes, it’s still a good idea.

The NCSC is a UK government entity that exists to research, combat, and raise awareness of cybersecurity issues. They work with global and local partners on these issues.

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