Iron Wil

On Digg, I came across this link about password cracking and figured that it would be helpful. It is a technical discussion on the security of password use and why it is important to use an alpha-numeric password.

The article is at One Man’s Blog; thanks for John P. for the article.

iron wil

Passwords are the bane and blessing of our computer experience. Whether you have a PC [or Mac or LinBox] you were prompted to setup a password [and I hope you did].

The typical user picks something familiar that is easy to type and easy to remember. There is one HUGE problem with this password - it is easy to break. Tools to pop this password have been created and are very accessible to anyone with internet access. These tools can bypass passwords that are eight characters or less even if they are alpha-numeric with special characters [i.e. “*”, “%”, or “)”]. Today, it is recommended, that our passwords should really be passphrases.

PassPhrases? Yes, something that you can remember and is structured like a sentence. “I meet my best friend in Junior High School in 1989″, this is an example of a possible passphrase. However, this in just the beginning. The next step is to insert special characters and additional number. For example: “1m33tmyb35tfr13nd1njun1orh1gh5ch00l1n!(8(”. Okay this phrase may be a little excessive; however, this statement is true and something that I know and is easy to remember. The hard part is to remember what things you changed, this is where being consistent is important. It is also much longer than an eight character password and the tools used to break the eight character passwords will not work and it will be much harder for someone to get into your computer or web account [meaning an account you have at any online site].

It would also be wise to change all, yes ALL, of your passwords to passphrases; it doesn’t matter what websites or computer systems you use, they will be safer that way. Now, the harder part is picking a different passphrase for each computer or website you access. Some of you are now scratching your heads and wondering why - simply, one passphrase will allow anyone who gets it to access everything you own.

I hope this helps, remember better passphrases mean less of a chance your eBay or bank account will get taken over. It won’t save you from a phishing eMail or pharmed web page; but it is up to you to read the web address in your address bar.

iron wil

Finally after waiting for 2 months I got my domain back & I moved IronWil to a new hosting company that has all the wiz-bang features that will help me manage this site. I have also finally decided on a theme/topic for my little corner of the net.

Security has been a focus of mine back in the days when Kazaa was the P2P network & the RIAA went ape on them [aprox. 2003]. Ever since then I have been security conscience, making recommendations to clients, family, & others that I talked with. I have been mindful enough to have landed a job with a consulting firm that focused on Government and Rick Compliance. I read daily the events that have shaped the current computer landscape.

Everybody has their opinions and their interpretation of the current [and ever changing] computing environment. My goal with IronWil is to bring the top of mind items to one place, have a place to rant, & rave.

iron wil