That's right, in an explosion of serendipity based on our discussion and all the talk of passwords, it turns out today is World Password Day, a day created by Intel and MacAfee to encourage people to change their passwords.
As the linked article states, the common password used last year was '123456,' but that's the most common password EVERY year! Don't use that password!
And as much as I want people to have good, strong passwords, I will be the one dissenting voice and ask that you not actually change it until Friday, after we have talked about what makes a good password. If you read the linked article, however, there is a very, very strong bit of foreshadowing regarding the discussion we'll have.
And really - if you're going to change it, change it to something good!
I did not know that there was World Password Day. It seems like every day is a new “holiday” now. I really cannot believe that the most common password is 123456. People really do not take the time to think about what their password is and they want something that is easy to remember. The problem with that is the easy passwords are the first ones that thefts going to try first.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Theobald
I think there is a holiday for everything. I think this topic is important. I will wait for class on Friday, because I am a fan of making short but hard passwords. I wish it would be good enough to change it once a year. For now i guess I will have a beer and toast this holiday. I want to see what the professor calls a really good password.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is crazy that someone would actually use the password 123456! They must not understand the reality of internet crime, or ever experienced having their identity stolen. I advise everyone that I know to change their password and make sure that it is not one that any one else would know.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that password 123456 is even accepted as a password anymore. Most secure sites require passwords with substance like letters, numbers, special characters. In todays time of hacking and online security it just doesn't seem like a very smart move to elect that as your password. I see where 12345678 made it to the list, that must be for passwords that require at least 8 "characters". The length over complexity tip in the article does make sense which would make it easier to have a longer are safer password without having to remember where the symbol was, the capital letter, and so on.
ReplyDeleteCrazy that there is an actually Holiday dedicated to bad passwords. I was a victim of using one of the worst passwords on that list previous. My favorite was "password" because I thought it was original and no one would think to use it. Unfortunately, I was so wrong because its one of the most commonly used bad passwords. I believe anyone can make a strong password if they just put the needed time to make one. That is the difference from your information being secured or it ending up in the wrong hands.
ReplyDeleteAt on my social security number as my password and thought "hey that isn't such a good idea." It was just an easy number to remember. I guess you live and you learn. I can't wait for Fridays class so I can learn what a good password is.
ReplyDeleteFor a very long time I also used that 123456789 or 987654321. Now I try to be a little more complicated and I write a word before the numbers and capitalize the first letter. For example "Example123456789" or 'Example987654321" I found this to be a little more difficult for people to hack. Now that I know that the number portion is very common it is better off to use a mixture of numbers instead.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that 123456 is a commonly used password. I do like the article it is simple and straight to the point, especially the main image. Long passwords with numbers and punctuations help strengthen your password. I would probably switch my password to a phrase, their example of " thundershowers at sunset" is quite amusing though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this on wednesday I was very tempted to change all of my passwords especially after finding out that passwords I use more frequently (for convenience) wouldn't take more than a day for a hacker to get in. But when you told us to wait until today (Friday) to change them, I decided to wait. I'm looking forward to learning how to create a good password that will hopefully be easy to remember. I still can't believe that people actually use "123456" and "password". During spring break, I decided to kill off some brain cells and watch the entire series of Dexter and for some reason this reminded me of a scene where Dexter is trying to guess his sisters password and he first tries "password" and it doesn't work so he then tries "fuckingpassword" and it worked.
ReplyDeleteI promise the weirdest days are created, but its a good reminder to change your passwords. I will need to mark this day on my calendar, that is something I am going to start to do is change my password every 6months-year to keep it fresh and hackers out of my accounts.
ReplyDeleteI think it's crazy how easy it is to break a password. You must protect yourself against fraud.
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