[Offtopic] RE: passwords

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

> According to The Age, the New Scientist magazine recently advises that,
> for your passwords, people should, 'pick two unrelated words, and join
> them with a punctuation mark.' Their example given, 'magpie/towerblock'
> They assert such passwords are memorable while also difficult to guess.


For possible interest and assistance re passwords here are the responses
from our Ed colleagues, across education lists, and, in order of receipt:

--

For secure passwords I use a pattern on the keyboard.  For instance 
bhuYGV567 - Just remember where it starts and whether you have caps on or 
not.  The computations are endless and difficult for hackers to guess.
Terry

--

I have certain phrases that are easy to remember and i simply use them as 
a mnemonic, taking the first letter from each word...  for example "The 
Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog" would become "TQBFJOTLD"    Most 
passwords should have upper and lower case and numbers, so just find a 
phrase that works with that...  "The 12 days of Christmas" would 
become "T12doC"  Car number plates make good passwords too.  Chris
PS, none of those passwords above are actually mine, just in case you 
were wondering  :-)

--

This year I found an algorithm to generate new passwords for our Novell
network. They consisted of four letters that read to create random and
obscure word. I just added two random numbers to the end. This year nobody
came back to me asking to change the password. The thought of just making
two words is a splendid suggestion for new users. :-)

The DEECD cases admin system mandates the use of passwords with numbers,
case elements and other cryptic components. Tighter security that users
find hostile to their memory will suffer from the danger that they will
defeat the password by secretly recording the password on a location near
the computer. I have seen this done on countless occasions. As one chap
pointed out, it made as much as much sense as asking him to memorise (Pi)
to xxx places (something I did a long time ago when I had too much time
on my hands)  Regards  Roland

--

At my school I give every student a password that consists of a three 
letter word, a dash, another three letter word and a number eg rub-won9 
I once typed out 150 three letter words I found from the Internet. I used 
Excel to concatenate the four bits into one password.  Cheers  David

--

Two completely unrelated words....hmmm....

windows&works
logies+entertainment
richmond-win
NRL<IQ

Yeah - I can see what they're getting at, fiendishly clever. Endless 
possibilities. Cameron

--

AHHH, Now I understand ...... 

Military/intelligence
Common/sense

*giggle*

Colin 

--

(and, regarding a reference for the original item/post)

Well, dont have a url, but, it was a one paragraph item in the "Loose 
Change' column by one James Lockington, on page 3 of the "Money Talks" 
section of the "Money" centre liftout section of The Age, Wed May 6th
2009 edition. I just basically typed up the entire one paragraph item.
Cheers, Stephen

--

Thanks,
Stephen