Passwords down under

This morning's Washington Post reports:

A security audit of the Western Australian government released by the state’s auditor general this week found that 26 percent of its officials had weak, common passwords -- including more than 5,000 including the word “password" out of 234,000 in 17 government agencies.

Ouch.

But, as countless reports verify, things here up over aren't better. "Password" is not a password; don't use it. Nor "Password123." Passwords should be easy to remember and hard to guess and above all, long. Long, long, long. Here's some more detailed advice.

Or better yet, use a password manager that will generate strong passwords and then remember them for you. Among the most frequently recommended are 1Password, LastPass, and Dashlane.