Password Security Insights

Analyst Robert Graham of Dark Reading, a website dealing with computer security issues, authored a fascinating report on the recent hacking of the popular website phpbb.com. The hacker published approximately 20,000 passwords from the site. A few of the interesting insights about the passwords:

16% of passwords matched a person's first name. This includes people choosing their own first names or those of their spouses or children. The most popular first names were Joshua, Thomas, Michael, and Charlie. But I wonder if there is something else going on. Joshua, for example, was also the password to the computer in "Wargames," which almost certainly accounts for it being at top. Variations of the name "Jordan" are popular, which almost certainly refers to "Michael Jordan," a prominent basketball start (such as "jordan23," referring to his jersey number). This makes me wonder how many people use "Michael" as a password to refer to their children compared to sports stars.

14% of passwords were patterns on the keyboard, like "1234," "qwerty," or "asdf." There are a lot of different patterns people choose, like "1qaz2wsx" or "1q2w3e." I spent a while googling "159357," trying to figure out how to categorize it, then realized it was a pattern on the numeric keypad. I suppose whereas "1234" is popular among righthanded people, "159357" will be popular among lefties.

4% are variations of the word "password," such as "passw0rd," "password1," or "passwd." I googled "drowssap," trying to figure out how to categorize it, until I realized it was "password" spelled backward.

For the complete list and analysis, visit link.

http://www.darkreading.com/blog/archives/2009/02/phpbb_password.html - via tech

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.


Comments (10)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

I've been advocating for strong password use both within my company and with our clients for years, but its surprising how many people use the same simple password everywhere.

I wrote more about that, and about some tips for avoiding common password management headaches, here:

The Danger of Strong Passwords that are Easy-to-remember
http://faseidl.com/public/item/229130
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Oh, and if you're going to use a password generator for really Sdfg£$7£$%sbkA sort of passwords for routers and the like - write it carefully on the bottom in indelible pen.
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For secure passwords I sometimes use license plate numbers from cars we had when I was a kid. Most men can remember the plates from when they were not much older than toddlers - alphanumeric, non-obvious, and unless someone's very clever, impossible to guess.
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While I understand the reasoning, it's not advised to drive with one hand on the stick áll the time. Only when actually shifting.
Even more so, it's not necessary all the time either. On a highway you have to shift to the highest gear, keep both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road.

Where I'm from, driving stick is taught as a standard.
If drivers don't show to be sensible in the way that you simple "can't" do anything else with your hands but driving when driving, they shouldn't be in the first place. This goes for all ages.
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Many moons ago, when I learned to drive, if you took your test on an automatic you had a restriction put on your license. And people who could only drive an automatic were scoffed at.
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Where I live, driving stick is typical, and that's what I drive. Shifting gears is only demanding for so long; after a while, your brain gets trained enough that it's part of driving, just like everything else. While a nuisance when you need a free hand, there are solutions around, even while driving through busy city traffic (where you need to fiddle with the stick a lot more than on longer trips, as Barking_Bud correctly pointed out above).

Having said all of the above, I totally recommend a teenager's first car should be manual transmission. Having to switch gears manually really helps you get an intimate feeling for how things work inside the engine, when you can expect power and when you shouldn't, and generally how to take advantage of a car's engine.
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Er, take it from someone who lives in the UK (where stick shift is the norm) this would NOT do anything to stop teenagers being teenagers. Best one I saw here was an idiot rolling a cigarette while steering with his elbows! The real answer is to make teenagers drive little electric 2 person bumper cars until they are 28 (when their brains suddenly get into gear).
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My kids want to learn to drive a stick shift. But our manual truck died, and a decent affordable used car with a stick shift is very hard to find these days. In all honesty, I'd rather have a 30-40 year old car anyway because you can repair them at home. Too bad those are considered "antique."
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I hope this push for manual does take off. In addition to reducing texting while driving, it might also introduce more people to how enjoyable it is to actually operate a vehicle, to enjoy driving rather than just seeing it as a way to get from Point A to Point B.
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