New UK Security Guidelines: Password Re-Use OK, Frequent Changing a Waste

isoloisti writes: New UK government guidance on how to handle passwords (PDF) "advocates a dramatic simplification of the current approach." "Unlike previous guidance, this doesn't focus on trying to get ever more entropy into passwords." For example: "Regular password changing harms rather than improves security, so avoid placing this burden on users." And "given the infeasibility of memorising multiple passwords, many are likely to be re-used. Users should only do this where the compromise of one password does not result in the compromise of more valuable data protected by the same password on a different system."