Snowden's Advice on Passwords: Use 'Passphrases'

As part of his interview with John Oliver for the latter's Last Week Tonight show, Edward Snowden explained how ridiculously easy it is—takes "less than a second"—for a computer to crack a typical eight-character password. His solution? Ditch passwords in favor of "passphrases," reports Time. It helps to make them long and unusual, as in Snowden's memorable example, involving a former prime minister: margaretthatcheris110%SEXY. As Oliver says, "That is a password that not even a computer would guess." (This portion of their interview didn't air on Oliver's show.)