Current Event Articles: Sciencetext Tech Talk: “How quickly can your password be cracked?” plus 1 more

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sciencetext Tech Talk: “How quickly can your password be cracked?” plus 1 more

How quickly can your password be cracked?

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Mike on ghacks has posted an interesting introduction to password strength. You may think your password is strong, but the range of times required to crack passwords of different types goes from essentially instantaneous (for any 3-character password, e.g. 3D%) to several years for an 8-character password of mixed case alphanumerics and symbols (e.g. 4$Gqvt}k).

Mike displays a nice table to show the range of crackability:

His top tip for passwords? “Choose one or two super-strong passwords and change the passwords on every website you have an account with to those.”

My own tip is to use a password manager, allow it to create a different random super strong password for every site and then create a super strong master password. Use an offline password manager that does not store your passwords on its servers whether encrypted or not.

Post from: David Bradley's Sciencetext Tech Talk

How quickly can your password be cracked?

Solar-powered strap, non-profit Facebook, Windows 8

Posted: 30 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT

These are my delicious technology links for this week:

Solar-powered camera strap saves the day – I suspect this will find a market, but even on days where I’ve shot several hundred photos at an event, I’ve only just used up my main and spare batteries, and given that it’s the end of the day when you’re likely to run out of power just as the sun is setting…well you do the logic…
Facebook ebook for small non-profits – Like their page and get the Complete Facebook Guide for Small Non-Profits by Inbound Zombie, Kim explains it all.
Windows 8 plans leaked – Numerous details have been revealed about the “forthcoming” release of the Windows operating system currently known as Windows 8. I only just upgraded from XP to 7 and they’re teasing me with yet another version.
Google Me – Google is rumored to be readying to launch a Facebook with the fail name of called “Google Me”. But, what’s Orkut if it’s not Google’s social network and why doesn’t Google Buzz come to mind…
Facebook uses BitTorrent, and they love it – Facebook’s systems engineers are utilizing the file-sharing system known as Bit Torrent to spread server loads for distributing updates for users.
Anti-virus is a poor substitute for common sense – Antivirus software is like a seat-belt rather than armor plating and industrial strength airbags, if you’re going to drive over a cliff, you’re going to get hurt.