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From: David Eather on 17 Jul 2010 17:44
Did anyone notice in all the ho-ha of the Russian spy cell being
deported that the software they used had a 27 character password which
(at least one) of the trained agents had to write down?

This equates to 105-108 bits of entropy if they were something like
first letters from a memorable phrase or up to about 175 bits of entropy
if chosen from all printable characters. I suspect the lower estimate is
the more likely but in either case this is way more than the normally
recommended 80 odd bits of entropy needed for password security.

Given that the spies messages had to resist breaking for a long time to
avoid compromising the long term sleeper cell (say 60 - 100 years)for
the average person that probably represents a requirement of 95 - 100
bits for protection from a government and perhaps 85 - 90 for protection
from a large corporation.


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