
Cryptography Kindergarten 25
saved on disk to reassemble a working private key. If you enter
the wrong passphrase, this private key is wrong and will not
work. Thus, a stolen laptop containing a private key file will be
useless to the person who finds it, unless you save your pass-
phrase in a plain text file somewhere, that is! The only safe place
for your passphrase is in your head.
Choosing a Passphrase
Computers are now so fast that they can crack short passwords
rapidly simply by trying each possible password in quick suc-
cession. This process is called brute forcing. Although you can
use a simple password for a passphrase, doing so consider ...