Simple Passwords Remain Popular

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mikepdx

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If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe

Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”
Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks
on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a
key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou”
or even “password” to protect their data.

Simple Passwords Remain Popular, Despite Risk of Hacking - NYTimes.com
 

SCPD

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Passwords are the weak point of network systems, that much is true. Many folks use incremental passwords such as password1 then when it expires use password2 and so on...

The best passwords are non-words, consisting of random letters, text and punctuation marks, consisting of at least 8 characters in length.

I sat down at my bro's machine one day, on a challenge from him to hack into his account. Since I know a lot about him I was able to hack in within 5 minutes. His password then? 81HDFLH. Yup, he listed his make and model of his Harley-Davidson. He was totally blown away that I was in.
 

bezking

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Passwords are the weak point of network systems, that much is true. Many folks use incremental passwords such as password1 then when it expires use password2 and so on...

One of my network administrators at work once did the same thing (with his domain admin account that got him access to *everything* on our network)... I nearly fired him on the spot when I found out. :evil:
 
N

N_Jay

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Seems that once you find the equipment it would be simple to know if any existed.

Looks more like fearmongering than any real problem.

Probably pushed by a Cisco lobbyist to help keep their insane markups and margins.
 

K4IHS

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I service a lot of computers. I've found on more then one occasion where people use qwerty. I never got it until I looked down at the keyboard to enter it! :)
 

mike_s104

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You should hear people when they are told "you need to change your password to some new that you have never used before, cannot contain any part of your name or username, and must contain 3 of the 4 of the following: upper case, lower case, number and/or special character/symbol."

"OH MY GOD, how do you expect anyone to remember that? When did this start? I used "Bobbyjoe123!" last time, can I use it again? " The people that give you that answer have their password under their mouse pad (for a laser mouse that doesn't need one), under their keyboard or plastered on their office/cube wall. No matter how secure you make a network, the biggest threat is from your users.
 

iMONITOR

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When I worked in IT at SBC a very large percentage of the female employees kept their password on a piece of paper under their keyboard. A few were caught with it on a Post-Note stuck on the front bezel of their monitor! :roll:
 
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