Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday August 24 2018, @09:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-protects-YOUR-luggage? dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Somewhere in Western Australia, a government IT employee is probably laughing or crying or pulling their hair out (or maybe all of the above). A security audit of the Western Australian government released by the state’s auditor general this week found that 26 percent of its officials had weak, common passwords -- including more than 5,000 including the word “password" out of 234,000 in 17 government agencies.

The legions of lazy passwords were exactly what you -- or a thrilled hacker -- would expect: 1,464 people went for “Password123” and 813 used “password1." Nearly 200 individuals used “password” -- maybe they never changed it to begin with?

Almost 13,000 used variations of the date and season, and almost 7,000 included versions of “123.”

[...] The traditional guidelines for strong passwords -- make them long and complicated, use symbols and a mix of upper and lowercase letters, change them regularly -- were making it easier for hackers, Paul Grassi of the National Institute of Standards and Technology told NPR last June. The organization’s current guidelines for good passwords are that they should be simple, long and easy to remember. It suggests using normal English words and phrases that are easy for users but tougher on hackers.

If you want to keep your accounts secure, pick something that’s lengthy and memorable, and if you change it, switch more than a single letter or digit. And for heaven’s sake, don’t use the word “password.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/22/western-australian-government-officials-used-password-their-password-cool-cool/?noredirect=on


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @11:33AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @11:33AM (#725746)

    I hate to point out the obvious, but Pasword123 meets the following password criteria:

    • Greater then eight characters in length.
    • Contains one or more uppercase characters.
    • Contains one or more lowercase characters.
    • Contains one or more numbers.

    If the requirements were "meet three of these four requirements: uppercase, lowercase, number and special character" then Pasword123 is a perfectly cromulent password.

  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday August 24 2018, @12:40PM

    by isostatic (365) on Friday August 24 2018, @12:40PM (#725766) Journal

    If the requirements were "meet three of these four requirements: uppercase, lowercase, number and special character" then Pasword123 is a perfectly cromulent password.

    And it really pisses me off when I can't use 9cba85bfc0a59571084224659fae60e5 as a password on these sorts of sites

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday August 24 2018, @03:07PM (2 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday August 24 2018, @03:07PM (#725839) Journal

    Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation by using that password!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @04:49PM (#725900)

      Cute, but none of those would be valid passwords. Stay out of the dictionary, you slacker!

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Friday August 24 2018, @06:16PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Friday August 24 2018, @06:16PM (#725952)

        My password is "impervioustodictionaryattacks", you insensitive clod !

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday August 24 2018, @06:18PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday August 24 2018, @06:18PM (#725955) Journal

    For some reason, whenever someone uses the word cromulent, I think think of some british dude eating a tasty crumpet.
    The really hilarious thing I just found on https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cromulent [oxforddictionaries.com] is this: "Origin 1990s: first used in the US animated television series The Simpsons."

    Also, hey! How did you guess our IT's password policy! Ok, it's not that exactly, but it's not much better.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @11:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @11:15PM (#726068)

      Origin 1990s: first used in the US animated television series The Simpsons."

      Yes indeed, those silver-tongued Simpsons embiggen us all.