Weak passwords

'Trivial' Passwords Enabled Huge Hack - PC World

It is kind of amazing what some folks pick for passwords. But I guess it explains why spammers/hackers have such an easy time.

There are actually a couple of good suggestions in the comments section of the article.

This is reason alone to use a password manager like the excellent cross-platform KeepassX or 1Password for Mac. That way you need only remember one very strong master password and all of your online accounts are protected with extremely strong passwords..

Regards

But then again, there's such a thing as too complex a password. The government is getting rediculous. I feel like I have to write a book every time I want to login/unlock my computer.

This leads to normal users doing the bare minimum requirements and making a simple password otherwise, that or they write them down some where. Not exactly secure.

Village Idiot said:

But then again, there's such a thing as too complex a password. The government is getting rediculous. I feel like I have to write a book every time I want to login/unlock my computer.

Click to expand...

Agreed, I have a dongle that rotates the password with the server, its a pain in the ***. And if you lose it your f'd for everything else tho i use a password vault.

I thought that the most common password would be "password." I don't think "123456" or "princess" are much better, though. I try to change my important passwords every now and then as well as using something a little more secure than "123456."

My only problem is the software that requires I change my password every X days. It makes memorizing a good password pointless as you will have to change later so you end up picking simple passwords that you can remember because you know you will only get them a few months.

I worked at a client last year that still had a mail server with the hostname "gandalf" and a password anyone who read a Tolkien book could crack.