Additionally, two stage password protection if you are using gmail or any other service that allows it makes breaking into an account nearly impossible even with a relatively weak password.
Also, I am curious how many bits of entropy do you allow per tier; losing control of your main email account is a lot worse than most people seem to assume- The accounts I have seen which have had regular use often include a SIN and a fairly large amount of information which can be used for much more costly or malicious attacks than online banking provides.
I used a two tiered system at and 60 and 75 bits respectively, and if you actually want something to stay secure for any length of time against a GPU assisted brute force attack then you basically cannot go under 56 bits, which still only buys you a month against a good system.
I generally assume anybody who has the resources, expertise, and access to brute-force my password against a system is going to get in regardless of what I do, so I don’t worry too much about password entropy. If my bank can’t protect me against brute-force guessing, I am not going to believe they can protect me against a hacking scheme which bypasses my password altogether.
The weakest link in the chain is the one which breaks, and it makes little sense to forge one link particularly strong in case another link is particularly weak.
(Similarly, I always assume if somebody has physical access to my hard drive, they have access to its contents, regardless of what I’ve done to the hard drive.)
Additionally, two stage password protection if you are using gmail or any other service that allows it makes breaking into an account nearly impossible even with a relatively weak password. Also, I am curious how many bits of entropy do you allow per tier; losing control of your main email account is a lot worse than most people seem to assume- The accounts I have seen which have had regular use often include a SIN and a fairly large amount of information which can be used for much more costly or malicious attacks than online banking provides. I used a two tiered system at and 60 and 75 bits respectively, and if you actually want something to stay secure for any length of time against a GPU assisted brute force attack then you basically cannot go under 56 bits, which still only buys you a month against a good system.
I generally assume anybody who has the resources, expertise, and access to brute-force my password against a system is going to get in regardless of what I do, so I don’t worry too much about password entropy. If my bank can’t protect me against brute-force guessing, I am not going to believe they can protect me against a hacking scheme which bypasses my password altogether.
The weakest link in the chain is the one which breaks, and it makes little sense to forge one link particularly strong in case another link is particularly weak.
(Similarly, I always assume if somebody has physical access to my hard drive, they have access to its contents, regardless of what I’ve done to the hard drive.)