RAJESH WARRIER

Dont act smart with me
Wednesday, March 15, 2006

I received this email some days back, it was titled "Corporate Information Security - Password Strength Testing". The content was something like this ... "If you have recieved this message it is due to the fact that your Network Logon ID possesses a password that was easily guessed during IT Security's compliance testing using a password strength testing utility. This utility compares passwords to dictionary works, names, places, etc. in addition to adding numbers to the beginning and/or end of the password. Please change your password to one that is not easily guessed."

I did not give a damn at that point and thought of worrying about it later. Very next day, try to login to my box and I find myself being asked to change my password. It was as if I was being held at gun-point "change your password or you'll drop dead" ...

Already running late at work that day, huffed and puffed my way to work, and now this .. start to a glorious day @ work - I said to myself. Pulled my chair and sat down to change the pwd.- a combination of alphabets and numbers that would allow me login and check my email and mainly 'start working' . Little did I know that it would become my worst nightmare.

15 minutes into it, I was still punching in, trying different combinations ..."too similar to the previous one" "should have atleast xxx characters and may include numbers" "shouldn't start with a number" ... aaaarrrggghhhh, tell you I was going nuts and for the very first time I felt like a noob. The eagerness inside me to beat the machine flourishing all of a sudden from no-where.

After using almost every key on my keyboard I landed upon a combination that succeded. Half the work was done. Now came the tough part of remembering that crap. I read the same email I recd. the day before, it said ...

Things to remember -

Do not “hide” passwords at your workstation (under keyboard or mouse pad, etc.)
Be sure to log off all applications and workstations to ensure unauthorized individuals do not use your ID and password

... as you say sir ...

Posted by Rajesh @ 10:27 PM; PERMALINK,

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5 Shouts:

At March 16, 2006 8:49 AM, ammu said...: ouch! that must have sucked.

IT security...cant live with them...cant live without them...
At March 16, 2006 9:25 AM, Ellie said...: That's irritating!I get bugged choosing the 'n' IDs itself...thankfully parents chose to give me a pretty obscure name...:) But faced hell when I wanted my ids to include tweety,choco etc...;-)

Happy Holi to you too!
At March 16, 2006 2:25 PM, Rajesh said...: @ Amrita - its for the good but then there are exceptions and yeah it Sucks. Luckily I still remember the pwd ;-)

@ Ellie - Lol .. I usually try to include numbers etc..but in the end have to submit to the "Logic used"
At March 20, 2006 4:04 AM, RPM said...: @rajesh: there are a few password generator/encrypter programs available in the market today, either free or for a very low price. Just get one of them - in fact, I know a friend who has put all his password on a USB thumb drive (encrypted) and he is all set with that.
At March 20, 2006 12:29 PM, Rajesh said...: @ RPM - Sounds interesting, I had heard of something like that but didnt think of using them yet. Will definitely check it out ...