You’ve probably followed this go-to password strategy countless times online: a letter, number, at least one uppercase letter and a special character.
But the person that helped spread this doctrine is now walking it back, saying it’s largely been ineffective.
“Much of what I did I now regret,” said Bill Burr — not the comedian — told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday. “It just drives people bananas and they don’t pick good passwords no matter what you do.”
The 72-year-old outlined what has become password Gospel while working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2003.