--- title: This is Edward Snowden's Advice for an Unhackable Password description: Edward Snowden gave John Oliver some advice on creating a better password canonical: https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-09T17:37:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:30.385Z og:title: This is Edward Snowden's Advice for an Unhackable Password og:description: He told John Oliver on 'Last Week Tonight' og:url: https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This is Edward Snowden's Advice for an Unhackable Password twitter:description: He told John Oliver on 'Last Week Tonight' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This is Edward Snowden's Advice to John Oliver for an Unhackable Password ## Video: Facebook Is Planning Virtual Reality Apps For Everyone [Watch (HLS stream): Facebook Is Planning Virtual Reality Apps For Everyone](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ncI9ZLvX.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-02-18. Facebook wants all its users to be able to create and upload content for virtual reality systems such as Oculus Rift._ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Apr 9, 2015 5:37 PM UTC by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Apr 9, 2015 5:37 PM UTC Edward Snowden has bad news for you: Your computer password is probably terrible. In a web extension of his [Sunday interview with John Oliver on _Last Week Tonight_](http://time.com/3771818/john-oliver-edward-snowden-last-week-tonight/), Snowden laid out the bad news: “For somebody who has a very common 8-character password, it can literally take less than a second for a computer to go through possibilities and pull that password out.” Less than one second. “My password is five characters,” Oliver said. “That’s not a joke. That’s bad, right?” Snowden agreed it is really bad. So what should people do for their passwords? While Oliver’s suggestion of “limpbiscuit4eva” was a flop, Snowden had some helpful advice: Forget about passwords and go with “passphrases,” or phrases that are long, unique, and thus easy to remember. Like “margaretthatcheris110%SEXY”. A computer would never get it, and you’d never forget it. _Read next:_ [_Watch John Oliver Tell Edward Snowden No One Knows Who He Is_](http://time.com/3771818/john-oliver-edward-snowden-last-week-tonight/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/"},"headline":"This is Edward Snowden's Advice to John Oliver for an Unhackable Password","datePublished":"2015-04-09T17:37:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:30.385Z","description":"\"Last Week Tonight\" posted an extension of the Snowden interview","url":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","viral","Snowden","Passwords"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/","name":"This is Edward Snowden's Advice to John Oliver for an Unhackable Password"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Facebook Is Planning Virtual Reality Apps For Everyone","description":"Facebook wants all its users to be able to create and upload content for virtual reality systems such as Oculus Rift.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ncI9ZLvX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-18T17:05:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ncI9ZLvX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/","duration":"PT1M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3815620/edward-snowden-password-john-oliver/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```