海角大神

Modern field guide to security and privacy

Video: How to create a secure password, as told by a 12-year-old

A young New Yorker started her own business to sell secure passwords. 

|
Ann Hermes
Mira Modi owns a secure password business where she generates and sells cryptographically strong passphrases.

Mira Modi is a 12-year-old entrepreneur who wants to make the world safer one secure password at a time.聽

While the average person has 19 to 25 passwords, easy-to-remember passwords are also really easy to guess 鈥 or crack. 鈥淚f you were choosing your own password you鈥檇 probably associate it with something easy to remember, like, maybe your pet鈥檚 name,鈥 Mira says, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 easier to guess than just random words.鈥澛

So the young New Yorker started her own business to sell people more secure passwords to better protect them from hackers and other surveillance, using a technique called Diceware. She rolls dice to generate a random, six-word phrase, which she mails to each customer. Watch our video to learn more about how to create a secure password using Diceware:聽

For more:聽

Mira is one of Passcode's 15 under 15 kid hackers. For the full series, see: passcode.csmonitor.com/hackerkids

Security Culture

This journalism empowers people to understand the bigger picture of cybersecurity as it connects to some of the most personal parts of their lives: their job, their education, the evolving digital culture around them, and the technology they use on a day-to-day basis. As part of the Monitor鈥檚 overarching commitment to chronicling human progress, we see these very human issues within cybersecurity to be critical and overlooked parts of the conversation.

This initiative is generously supported by

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
海角大神 was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to 鈥渟peak the truth in love.鈥 Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.
QR Code to Video: How to create a secure password, as told by a 12-year-old
Read this article in
/World/Passcode/Security-culture/2017/0123/Video-How-to-create-a-secure-password-as-told-by-a-12-year-old
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
/subscribe