Dr. International recently posted about using alternate keyboard characters as a method of enhancing security. I am of two minds on this issue.

On the one hand, any method you use that makes it harder for password checkers is potentially interesting, and the trick that Dr. International talks about seems to do just that.

On the other hand, I look at white papers like Selecting Secure Passwords that talk about many characters that this trick apparently will not work for (the characters get mapped to easy letters that would make for less secure pasword choices -- the white paper warns that you could end up with something much less secure).

Clearly the ALT+Numpad text handler is doing much more than meets the eye here. I'd have to suggest avoiding it, at least until some more clarity happens on what really takes place in the login dialog situation.

The table in that white paper certainly brought me up short....

 

This post brought to you by "รป" (U+00fb, a.k.a. LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX)
Accessible via <ALT>+0251, though apparently mapped to an uppercase U if that white paper knows what it is talking about)