Password Requires a Special Symbol

My password has to contain a symbol. Unfortunately, the symbol I had in mind isn’t available on the keyboard.

Creating a password used to be simple. Pick a word, add a number, and try not to forget it. Now a strong password may need uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, minimum lengths, and enough originality to satisfy a security system that has apparently seen everything. The requirements make sense—strong passwords help protect accounts from guessing, credential attacks, and automated cracking—but knowing that doesn’t make the little red “requirements not met” message any less irritating.

Then there’s remembering the thing afterward. Password managers can help by generating and storing complex passwords, although that introduces another wonderfully circular piece of technology: My Password Manager Needs a Password.

And just when you finally create something acceptable, there’s another layer waiting for you. Two-Factor Authentication Means Two Chances takes password security to its logical next step: proving you’re really you after you already proved you knew the password.

So yes, I understand why my password needs a special character.

I just disagree with their definition of special.

Explore more Chad Geepeety™ cartoons about passwords, cybersecurity, AI, and the everyday technology designed to protect us from ourselves.