Dumb Password Rules

Commonwealth Securities (Commsec) is facing criticism from security-conscious users for capping password length and blocking pasting into its login field, which makes password managers difficult to use. Commenters say short password limits and anti-paste rules are outdated practices that push customers toward weaker, reused passwords, and they are calling on the brokerage to modernise its authentication requirements.

Security enthusiasts are calling out Mindware over its password requirements, which reportedly allow special characters but only a select, unspecified subset of them. The complaint, circulating in cybersecurity circles, argues that failing to tell users which symbols are permitted makes it needlessly hard to create valid, secure passwords, turning a basic usability issue into a running example of poorly designed password policies.