Password meters: inaccurate advice offered inconsistently?

Although we are continually offered the promise of passwords being eradicated they continue to be used extensively on the majority of devices, sites and services. 1, 2 At the same time, they remain a significant point of weakness – particularly in view of the way in which users choose and manage them. For example, in 2017, Verizon's ‘Data Breach Investigations Report’ suggested that 81% of hacking-related breaches had “leveraged either stolen and/or weak passwords” (with 62% of breaches overall having featured hacking). 3