We use them every day: passwords. A string of letters, numbers, and symbols that we have to remember for email, banking, social media – practically for everything online. Let's be honest, most passwords aren't very strong. And why would they be? We have so many to remember! That leads to simple, easy-to-guess passwords or using the same one everywhere. And that's just asking for trouble.
It's time to say goodbye to passwords as you know them. It's time for the passphrase.
What exactly is a passphrase?
Simply put: a passphrase is a series of words that form a 'password sentence'. Think of something like: "senator-ranging-curable-stylized-stove-swapping." It's not a random jumble of characters but a number of words that are easy to note down.
Why a passphrase is much safer than a password (and what entropy has to do with it)
The strength of a password lies in its 'unpredictability' or 'randomness'. In technical terms, we call this entropy. The more entropy your password has, the harder it is for a computer to guess it, and therefore, the safer it is. Entropy expresses the number of possible combinations in 'bits'. A higher number of bits means an exponentially greater amount of work for a computer to try all possibilities.
Let's see why a passphrase has so much more entropy, and thus is safer:
A lot longer: A password of 8-12 characters can easily be cracked these days. Often, these passwords only have 20-30 bits of entropy. For a modern computer, cracking it takes just seconds to minutes. A passphrase of 4-6 words is quickly 20-30 characters long, and that makes a world of difference. Every time you add an extra word, the number of possible combinations gets hugely bigger.
Easier to remember: This may be the most important reason to use a passphrase for your digital legacy: a passphrase is simple and straightforward to write down and pass on. You don’t have to worry about "Is this a capital I, a lowercase l, or the number 1?" – something that happens all too often with complex passwords. This makes transferring your Veault at the right time much smoother.
Hard to guess for computers: Computers are great at guessing short, complex passwords by trying all combinations. But a string of random, unrelated words is much harder for a computer to crack. Even with the most powerful systems, it would take millions of years to try the possible combinations of a good passphrase.
How Veault helps you with a super-strong passphrase (Diceware method)
Veault doesn’t just help you with a passphrase. We use the proven Diceware method. Here's how it works:
The method uses a list of words that are specifically chosen for their length, uniqueness, and the fact that they have no obvious associations.
For each word you choose, a random number from 1 to 6 is generated (imagine rolling a die). With six dice rolls, you can choose exactly one word from the list (since 6 to the power of 5, or 7776 options, corresponds to the length of the word list).
Veault generates for you a 6-word passphrase according to this principle. This ensures a combination of words that is random enough to be extremely secure. Such a passphrase has around 77.5 bits of entropy.
What does 77.5 bits mean in practice? With current computer technology and specialized hardware that can make billions of attempts per second, cracking such a passphrase would take on average tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years. This is a timespan that is practically considered uncrackable. Even with expected future advancements in computing power, the time needed to crack a password with this entropy remains extremely long.
Really locking down your digital vault
With a strong passphrase, you protect your Veault, and with it all the important information you have stored inside. It's a simple but incredibly effective upgrade to your digital security. No more hassle with incomprehensible passwords that aren't actually secure enough. Just a phrase that's easy to keep, and perfectly safeguards your digital legacy.
