The composition and expiry rules came from one 2003 appendix, and its author regrets it. What actually takes over accounts is reuse, infostealers and phishable codes.
The FBI warned in May 2025 that end-of-life home routers are being taken over for criminal proxy networks, using malware that needs no password. What attackers actually want is your residential IP address. The eight settings that matter, why the guest network is the highest-value free change, and the backup rule that is the only answer to ransomware.
US fraud losses hit $16 billion in 2025. The six-digit code texted to your phone can be relayed by a fake page in real time — and CISA ranks it last. What phishing-resistant authentication does differently, and the two free steps that matter most.
