Professor of Computing Sciences Megan Squire was interviewed by multiple international media outlets following an article she penned about password security for The Conversation that gained widespread readership.
International media outlets recently turned to Megan Squire, professor of computing sciences, for her expertise on cybersecurity specifically as it relates to choosing the right passwords.
The media interest followed an article by Squire titled “Why we choose terrible passwords, and how to fix them,” that initially appeared in The Conversation and was then republished by outlets including the Daily Mail, International Business Times, CBS News, PBS and Quartz.
In an interview with W Radio in Colombia, Squire elaborated upon the most common mistakes people typically make when choosing a password. “Probably the biggest mistake … is to pick a word that is too easy,” Squire told the W Radio host, through a translator. “They will pick a short word or something that’s easy to remember, but that also makes it easy for a hacker to guess the password.”
Squire also participated in an extensive interview with Radio New Zealand about password security. The host asked Squire about the use of “bots” that hackers employ that can test out thousands of combinations in attempts to break into a person’s account. Squire told the host that there are multiple strategies that can help ward off hackers attempting to crack into your accounts.
“Knowing a little bit about math will tell us that the longer our password is, the better that password is, the stronger that password is going to be,” Squire said. “A nice long 10-, 12- or 15-character password — that’s going to be mathematically much harder to break.”