[BC] note to the list

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

When I worked for GE, they sent me to VAX/VMS system manager school. We were taught to use numbers and letters that meant something to us but were unknown to others. For instance, you would not use your address, telephone number, or SS number. However, you might use the name of the grade school teacher you (dis)liked most, or your first "true love" since you would generally keep these things secret. I used GloriaWiesnuski a lot, but as I got more computers to handle, I started to use "strange" hexadecimal numbers like 0xdeadface, 0xfeedf00d, and 0xbaadcafe.

The main development VAX, a VAX-11/750, with a whole 500 megabytes of hard disk space (don't laugh) at GE's long-gone Advanced Development Group (the Ranch) in Rancho Cordova, CA., had the SYSTEM password of JackWelshIsACreep.

One of the great things about the old computer terminals was that typing ^X cleared away anything you had typed. Therefore, if someone was looking over your shoulder while you were trying to log into the SYSTEM account, you would type garbage, more garbage, ^X, and then the real password. Somebody looking would think the SYSTEM password was 40 characters long and give up tying to catch it by watching the keyboard.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kaye" <sfdavidkaye at yahoo.com>

The problem is not services such as AOL or Yahoo, but users who use extremely simple passwords.  I have a password dictionary list I use to test security.  It is arranged in the order of most-likely used passwords.  Guess what the most common password is: "password" (!)

Other common passwords used are:  12345, letmein, opensesame, and 696969.