[ale] OT: password gripe

[Charles Shapiro]

Ah, so what you're telling me is I only need to beat one password out
of you. Hmm. Useful.

-- CHS

On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 9:56 AM,  <krwatson at cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
>> Geoffrey
>> Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 07:45
>> To: ALE
>> Subject: [ale] OT: password gripe
>>
>> <rant>
>> I do my best to create good passwords.  I'm continuing to find various
>> companies that I do business with, restricting the character set for
>> passwords and/or length.  This drives me nuts because all my passwords
>> contain a combination of alphanumeric and punctuation AND long.  I'm
>> continuing to find companies who do not permit punctuation in a
>> password.  I just don't get it?  Do they not understand that they are
>> reducing the security of a password by restricting the character set?
>>
>> I called support for one company and they told me it was an 'internet
>> standard.'  I told them they were full of crap.
>>
>> What am I missing here?  Can anyone give me a good reason for such a
>> policy????
>> </rant>
>>
>> --
>> Until later, Geoffrey
>>
>
> That really annoys me too, and why won't sights tell you what the password requirements are? I end up having to try several passwords to find out the length limit and character set.
>
> I have hundreds of user names and passwords because I use a different one for every account. I also use different random answers for the security questions on every site.
>
> Why write them down when you can use KeePass to remember them for you?
>
> http://keepass.info/
>
> Did I mention it's open source (GPL) and runs on just about anything.
>
> The Wikipedia article covers it better than I can and gives links for native versions for Linux, OS X, Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, and others.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KeePass
>
> It doesn't solve the problem of sites that only allow wimpy passwords but it makes changing them regularly and keeping up with them bearable.
>
> keith
>
> --
>
> Keith R. Watson                        Georgia Institute of Technology
> Systems Support Specialist IV          College of Computing
> keith.watson at cc.gatech.edu             801 Atlantic Drive NW
> (404) 385-7401                         Atlanta, GA 30332-0280
>
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