An 11-year-old entrepreneur is creating cryptologically secure passwords by hand for a fee of $2 (£1.30) each.

Mira Modi uses dice to generate random numbers which are matched to a long list of English words in order to generate passwords that can’t be easily guessed.

The passwords are then hand-written by the New York City-based youngster and sent out to buyers using the U.S. postal Service which, Modi’s website reminds us, “cannot be opened by the government without a search warrant”.

The sixth grader uses an established system called ‘Diceware’ which was first created by Arnold G. Reinhold and is used to create a series of words which are then combined into a nonsensical sequence.

The passwords can be ordered through the website diceawarepasswords.com.



A statement on the website explains:

“Buying a password seems crazy. But trying to make your own passwords is even crazier. C’mon – admit it, your passwords could be better. Instead of 12345 or password, your passwords could be longer, stronger, and more unique.

“That’s where I come in. Using a proven methodology, I build long, strong, memorable passwords using strings of words from the dictionary that I select using dice”.

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While the randomness of these phrases means that they’re hard to crack, they’re relatively easy for people to remember.

Buyers are advised to change the passwords slightly - adding capital letters or extra symbols - so that they’re not exactly the same as the ones they’ve been sent.

Modi is the daughter of Julia Angwin, an investigative journalist and author of Dragnet Nation, which deals with privacy, security and surveillance.

According to Arts Technica, Angwin employed her daughter to help out with research for a book by using Diceware to create passwords and Modi had the idea to turn it into a small business.

Image credit: Diceaware.com