passphrase


passphrase

(operating system)A string of words and characters that youtype in to authenticate yourself. Passphrases differ frompasswords only in length. Passwords are usually short - sixto ten characters. Passphrases are usually much longer - upto 100 characters or more. Their greater length makespassphrases more secure. Modern passphrases were invented bySigmund N. Porter in 1982.

Phil Zimmermann's popular encryption program PGP, forexample, requires you to make up a passphrase that you thenmust enter whenever you sign or decrypt messages.

http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.page.html.