A lesson on safe passwords
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This tells you a lot on how carefull users will be with their passwords: Bruce Blair was one of the officers responsible for launching the Minuteman missiles during Cold War. These missiles where expected to be locked by a secret code to prevent unauthorized launch. But ... ...the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard.[^] It means that the missiles that would nuke the whole planet out during the Cold War were controlled by the password "00000000" until 1977 and everyone around knew it. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara demanded that the locks be secret and effective. Military managers thought that was not effective and rendered them useless.:~ Think about that next time you implement a security policy. ;P
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
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This tells you a lot on how carefull users will be with their passwords: Bruce Blair was one of the officers responsible for launching the Minuteman missiles during Cold War. These missiles where expected to be locked by a secret code to prevent unauthorized launch. But ... ...the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard.[^] It means that the missiles that would nuke the whole planet out during the Cold War were controlled by the password "00000000" until 1977 and everyone around knew it. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara demanded that the locks be secret and effective. Military managers thought that was not effective and rendered them useless.:~ Think about that next time you implement a security policy. ;P
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
I've logged in remotely and am tweaking the targeting just a bit as we speak. What did you say your GPS coordinates were again? :)
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes In the US? Explore our Career Coaching.
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This tells you a lot on how carefull users will be with their passwords: Bruce Blair was one of the officers responsible for launching the Minuteman missiles during Cold War. These missiles where expected to be locked by a secret code to prevent unauthorized launch. But ... ...the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard.[^] It means that the missiles that would nuke the whole planet out during the Cold War were controlled by the password "00000000" until 1977 and everyone around knew it. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara demanded that the locks be secret and effective. Military managers thought that was not effective and rendered them useless.:~ Think about that next time you implement a security policy. ;P
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
Read on though and the reason for this is more clear and more cynical: SAC knew that the leadership structure would collapse with a first strike and that it would a) be impossible to actually order a counter-strike and b) that they wouldn't have to anyway. I'm pretty sure the US made sure Russia knew that the alleged safe guards weren't in place, just as I'm equally sure the Russian safeguards weren't really in place. Thing is, it worked.
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Read on though and the reason for this is more clear and more cynical: SAC knew that the leadership structure would collapse with a first strike and that it would a) be impossible to actually order a counter-strike and b) that they wouldn't have to anyway. I'm pretty sure the US made sure Russia knew that the alleged safe guards weren't in place, just as I'm equally sure the Russian safeguards weren't really in place. Thing is, it worked.
Joe Woodbury wrote:
Read on though and the reason for this is more clear and more cynical
If I were to accept all your assumptions, probably. But I wanted to make a generic point: people don't follow avoidable security policies. Regardless of who these people are. With valid reasons or not. Regardless of the risks.
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
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This tells you a lot on how carefull users will be with their passwords: Bruce Blair was one of the officers responsible for launching the Minuteman missiles during Cold War. These missiles where expected to be locked by a secret code to prevent unauthorized launch. But ... ...the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard.[^] It means that the missiles that would nuke the whole planet out during the Cold War were controlled by the password "00000000" until 1977 and everyone around knew it. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara demanded that the locks be secret and effective. Military managers thought that was not effective and rendered them useless.:~ Think about that next time you implement a security policy. ;P
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
For a long, long time Microsoft allowed a product key of all '1's to enable almost any product. I don't recall exactly when they disabled it, but it may have been even as recent as Win2K that it still worked. I raised many an eyebrow at customer sites when installing an o/s or software product and would zip right past the product key check with this trick.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
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This tells you a lot on how carefull users will be with their passwords: Bruce Blair was one of the officers responsible for launching the Minuteman missiles during Cold War. These missiles where expected to be locked by a secret code to prevent unauthorized launch. But ... ...the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard.[^] It means that the missiles that would nuke the whole planet out during the Cold War were controlled by the password "00000000" until 1977 and everyone around knew it. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara demanded that the locks be secret and effective. Military managers thought that was not effective and rendered them useless.:~ Think about that next time you implement a security policy. ;P
Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.
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For a long, long time Microsoft allowed a product key of all '1's to enable almost any product. I don't recall exactly when they disabled it, but it may have been even as recent as Win2K that it still worked. I raised many an eyebrow at customer sites when installing an o/s or software product and would zip right past the product key check with this trick.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
Not just all '1's, but any set of numbers that added up to '7' if I remember correctly (7 '1's worked obviously) I had a big argument with a manager that insisted that every product code on the CD jewel case was tied to that particular CD. I.e. the product code would only work on that physical disc... A few installs with (pseudo-)randomly selected numbers that added up to '7' eventually convinced him :)
I have no blog...
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Read on though and the reason for this is more clear and more cynical: SAC knew that the leadership structure would collapse with a first strike and that it would a) be impossible to actually order a counter-strike and b) that they wouldn't have to anyway. I'm pretty sure the US made sure Russia knew that the alleged safe guards weren't in place, just as I'm equally sure the Russian safeguards weren't really in place. Thing is, it worked.
That's like removing the brakes before going on a tour throuzgh the alps, and if you survive it, you say "hey! It worked!"
Don't attribute to stupidity what can be equally well explained by buerocracy.
My latest article | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Not just all '1's, but any set of numbers that added up to '7' if I remember correctly (7 '1's worked obviously) I had a big argument with a manager that insisted that every product code on the CD jewel case was tied to that particular CD. I.e. the product code would only work on that physical disc... A few installs with (pseudo-)randomly selected numbers that added up to '7' eventually convinced him :)
I have no blog...
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That's like removing the brakes before going on a tour throuzgh the alps, and if you survive it, you say "hey! It worked!"
Don't attribute to stupidity what can be equally well explained by buerocracy.
My latest article | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist