Passwords.. how good is yours?

[Medusa]

And folks? NEVER, ever use "abc123", "password" or "fuckyou".

This will surely get you hacked.

[blush]

Originally Posted by Medusa

And folks? NEVER, ever use "abc123", "password" or "fuckyou".

This will surely get you hacked.

Danm it. How did you know all my passwords?

[tapu]

Question: I once advised some friends (well, colleagues) that you could use your childhood phone number, along with a letter or two. Area code included depending on how many characters you need. They liked that because it was easy to remember what the number was, as well as what they'd decided to use as a password.

I understand the limited longevity, but in general, is there anything to say about that?

[LaneyDoll]

Originally Posted by tapu

Question: I once advised some friends (well, colleagues) that you could use your childhood phone number, along with a letter or two. Area code included depending on how many numbers you need.

What do you think of this, Linus, or others?

Oh, now I could easily do this. I would rather enter numbers---so much easier.

(eagerly awaiting replies from the tech people)

[Linus]

Originally Posted by tapu

Question: I once advised some friends (well, colleagues) that you could use your childhood phone number, along with a letter or two. Area code included depending on how many characters you need. They liked that because it was easy to remember what the number was, as well as what they'd decided to use as a password.

I understand the limited longevity, but in general, is there anything to say about that?

That is something that's searchable and can be found thanks to the various sites that collect information about individuals. One of the things I recommend to people is to use things that aren't easily tied to you.

For example, I consider myself Buddhist but if I use a phrase or quote out of the Torah or Koran or a quote from Brian Green's "The Hidden Reality", that'd be unexpected and not something easily known about me.

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by Medusa

And folks? NEVER, ever use "abc123", "password" or "fuckyou".

This will surely get you hacked.

So when my ex tried to pretend he was me on messenger to dig information from my friends....and I changed my password to "screwyouahole"....that was bad?

[Andrew, Jr.]

Thanks Linus! Also, do not use your pets names, or your favorite food, beverage, or perfume/cologne, and so on. Rosie and I have lost our laptop due to a trojan virus. And this virus just kept reproducing causing us a lot of money, time, and tears. If you are ever up in age, and the computer is your lifeline, you will understand how I felt.

[dixie]

I use my son's nickname from when he was a toddler (which is only known to family) and a mixture of his middle school id and my college id. Don't know how sucky that is or how hard it would be to crack though. It's 13 characters.

[Andrew, Jr.]

I also wanted to add on here to this topic that some will publish your address list, and if you send a private email to one person, everyone who is in your address list will receive it. This is only just an ounce of what happened to Rosie and myself. I think the people were trying to humiliate us or shame us in some way. At least we know who we can trust and who is honest with us. Changing passwords and all of that was just not enough for our cheap Dell laptop from Wal-Mart. I think we spent maybe $500 for everything. So with that said, we decided that it would be best to use the library or another one. The sad part is that I didn't get the virus from looking at porn. Go figure.

[Chancie]

Originally Posted by tapu

Question: I once advised some friends (well, colleagues) that you could use your childhood phone number, along with a letter or two. Area code included depending on how many characters you need. They liked that because it was easy to remember what the number was, as well as what they'd decided to use as a password.

I understand the limited longevity, but in general, is there anything to say about that?

Originally Posted by LaneyDoll

Oh, now I could easily do this. I would rather enter numbers---so much easier.

(eagerly awaiting replies from the tech people)

I suspect that a number that has a special format, like a telephone number or a zip code, is a bad choice.

I play a number guessing game with my students, and as soon as they figure out what 'kind' of number it is, it's all over for the person with the secret number.

I think my students are wonderful, of course, but they can't guess-and-check as fast as a computer can.

[tapu]

I was operating on the assumption that the childhood phone number would long ago have been taken out of operation. Maybe that comes from roaming far from home....

I see your point, though: here in New England, that number would be pretty traceable for all the people in their 40s who still "drive out to their parents'" every weekend.