Password managers, passkeys, and 2FA — tested guides to keeping your accounts safe.
I generated 600 passwords with 6 free password generators and measured their real strength. All 6 passed — but one popular tool's default settings are weaker than they look.
Password meters say 'Password123!' is strong. Real leaked-password data says the opposite. I downloaded the SecLists 10k-most-common password list and measured exactly what 10,001 real passwords look like — and 92% of them fall to one simple attack pattern.
I checked 5 common passwords against the HaveIBeenPwned breach database and generated 4 more to measure their real strength. The worst offender appeared in breaches 13.8 million times.
Do authenticator apps get the TOTP math right? I ran all 18 official RFC 6238 test vectors through three independent implementations — my own code, pyotp, and oathtool — and all 54 codes matched the published answers exactly.
Passwords are still the keys to your digital life. Learn how password managers, passkeys, and 2FA work in 2026 — and the mistakes that get people hacked.