Our tagging landscape for all things password-related is a bit of a mess. Right now, there are:
- passwords (3.8k): Specific to the security of passwords: hashing, entropy, cracking, resets, lockouts, etc. This is extremely broad, but at least obvious what it is for.
- password-management (1.3k): The functions performed by the person or processes responsible for security of passwords on a given system. I dont understand what this is for at all. And the name is dangerously close to password manager, a concept we keep recommending but don't have a tag for.
- password-cracking (0.7k): For questions relating to the cracking of passwords and the practices to mitigate against passwords being cracked. Finally a tag that makes sense!
- password-policy (0.5k): A set of requirements regarding password creation, storage, and usage. These requirements often constrain several characteristics of passwords. So, a password policy is a set of rules designed to enhance computer security by encouraging users to employ strong passwords and use them properly. This also makes sense to me, even though it could be narrowed down a bit.
There are many concept that we keep getting questions about, but lack specific tags for. This makes it very hard to find duplicates, when you have to search through a broad tag with thousands of questions. Not to mention how hard it makes it for people searching for existing answers to find them!
A more sane set of tags would be:
password-cracking (old): For questions relating to the cracking of passwords and the practices to mitigate against passwords being cracked.
password-policy (old, but new wiki): Rules for how users may choose passwords, such as requiring certain character groups or periodical password changes.
password-picking (new): How to, as an end user, choose strong passwords.
password-managers (new): Software designed to store your passwords so that you don't have to remember them all.
password-storage (new): How a service can securely store the passwords of it's users.
Maybe these are not optimal. I am sure there are other suggestions.
The big problem is that we have so many questions it is hard to make any change here. Retagging will be futile. So is there anyway we can make things better at the margin right now? Is there any new tags we can introduce? Any old we can kill?
