Friday, April 27, 2007

Joe Sent Us!

Security experts recommend you use strong passwords for your computing. Check out this bit from the charmingly named "Canton Repository":
But as passwords (or phrases) become longer, they become exponentially harder to crack. A 15-character password, even if vast computing power were applied to the problem of cracking it, would take many years to accomplish that, according to Stamps.

He advises using longer phrases in systems that can handle them. It shouldn't be a well-known phrase, slogan, expression, song lyric, quote from film or theater, or anything else obvious.

A "uniquely exotic" combination of words and names that's easy for the user to remember would be difficult to guess. Nonsense phrases also are almost impossible for someone else to guess.

He also says you can base your pass phrase on some private fact, known only to you, and advises using intentional misspellings, bad grammar, and foreign or invented words.

People disagree on the most commonly used Passwords. Stamps says that, based on various informal studies, the seven most common passwords are: no password at all, sex, love, god, secret, money and password.
Bad grammar makes for a good password? SPOGG is amused. Our suggestions:

1) i_could_of_died!
2) between_you_and_i
3) just_desserts

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