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17.11.2007, 12:41 quote

smile15
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Ireland, Mayo, Charlestown
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have changed password several times yet it still says password is in secure

 

17.11.2007, 14:21 quote

Anonymous

My password is a random Irish word and I can't see anyone ever guessing it, but it tells me its insecure too.
I ignore that, and hope for the best!
But then, I'm not sure how hackers work, maybe its not about guessing the whole word?

 

17.11.2007, 14:31 quote

kebabman
kebabman Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 931 Location: United Kingdom, England, Lancashire
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RocketGirl wrote:
My password is a random Irish word and I can't see anyone ever guessing it, but it tells me its insecure too.
I ignore that, and hope for the best!
But then, I'm not sure how hackers work, maybe its not about guessing the whole word?


If people are actually, trying they tend to just use a dictionary brute force method if the system they are trying to break doesn't have a set number of retries specified. IE they use an automated script to just keep retrying a user name with various passwords from a file of common words.

The best passwords are usually constructed using a mix of alpha numeric characters. Such as replacing an 'A' with a 4, 'E' with a 3 etc so they are easy to remember.

Also switch between using upper and lower case letters if the password system is case sensitive which it usually is.

One of the most secure methods for creating a password is using a passphrase. IE come up with a sentence you can remember. Trivial example :

"The dish ran away with the spoon"

Take the first letter from each word and you get :

"tdrawts"

Then you can make it more secure by mixing between upper and lower case and inserting numbers to get, for example :

"Tdr4wT5"

That should be a fairly secure password. Using these methods you should be able to come up with fairly secure passwords for use in most systems.

Hope this helps.

Edit : I have a feeling that the algorithm flirtbo.co.uk uses to determine the security of your password is way too picky. Your password could be quite secure and it would still tell you it isn't.
_________________

 

17.11.2007, 15:38 quote

Anonymous

Thanks for that, the "passphrase" seems an excellent idea - but I am sure I would have to write it down somewhere or I'd prolly never remember it - ho hum, just means I suppose one of my cats might try logging into flirtbox pretending to be me if they snooped in my diary!
Cheers.

 

17.11.2007, 17:17 quote

TimboDSLR
TimboDSLR Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 254 Location: United Kingdom, England, Shropshire
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My password is 'insecure'.

Somehow that seems appropriate.....

tim Wink

 

17.11.2007, 17:24 quote

Anonymous

TimboDSLR wrote:
My password is 'insecure'.

Somehow that seems appropriate.....

tim Wink



I REALLY hope you're joking!!!!!!!!

I read in readers digest once that there was a scam where someone stops you in the street with the pretense of doing some research and they ask you stuff like your mothers maiden name and your pets name....and Bingo! they've got *most* people's password.........
Cripes, glad I chose my dog's name for my id and not the other way round!!

 

17.11.2007, 20:11 quote

TimboDSLR
TimboDSLR Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 254 Location: United Kingdom, England, Shropshire
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RocketGirl wrote:


I REALLY hope you're joking!!!!!!!!



The clue is in the winking smiley....

tim Wink

 

17.11.2007, 20:28 quote

Anonymous

I knew you were joking Timbo, so was I
Believe me, some wouldn't be though........

 

17.11.2007, 21:11 quote

kebabman
kebabman Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 931 Location: United Kingdom, England, Lancashire
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RocketGirl wrote:
I knew you were joking Timbo, so was I
Believe me, some wouldn't be though........


You'd would be amazed at the passwords some people use. Someone ran an anonymous brute force attack (using a relatively small corpus of words) on a server of ours once and got over 70% of the passwords on the system. This was purely for research, and since then, it has forced the systems guys to be more stringent on password requirements. It just goes to show how little some people value their data, and their privacy!
_________________

 

17.11.2007, 21:18 quote

Anonymous

I dont think its a reflection on people's lack of valuing their data/privacy - some people, no matter how 'intelligent' just don't understand how important it is, or rather how easy it is for the hackers/conmen to get their info.
Take my elderly aunt for instance, very intelligent woman - went to cambridge university etc. - and someone phoned her and said they were from her bank and asked her all sorts of questions and she even gave them her PIN number for her card - yes gullible, assuming the nice young man on the phone was from the bank and was trying to help her.....I've nagged my mum to death about her computer passwords but she says "Oh you;re just paranoid, you shouldn't think the worst of people all the time".

 
 
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