Password Audit time :)

rsutoratosu

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2011
2,716
4
81
How many times have you seen this on your network.. here's my password and all my info. I went in to an office, the guy has a wall of password on post it pads, 4 across and 4 down. Its like they dont even try to hide it

really.jpg
 

Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
17,948
34
91
Most on the business side of an office environment resent the fact that they need 25 different passwords for 25 different systems. They just want one unified password or something that just makes it easier to keep track of (like mentioned above).
 

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
If your office requires you to change your password every 3 months, or has all sorts of ridiculous rules (must be 8-12 characters, must contain upper and lowercase letters, must contain a number, may NOT contain special characters, no repeating letters, may not use the same character more than twice, etc.), or requires you to keep a different password for absolutely everything... then yeah, what do you really expect?

Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
If your office requires you to change your password every 3 months, or has all sorts of ridiculous rules (must be 8-12 characters, must contain upper and lowercase letters, must contain a number, may NOT contain special characters, no repeating letters, may not use the same character more than twice, etc.), or requires you to keep a different password for absolutely everything... then yeah, what do you really expect?

Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.

Yes but if the admins don't do that then you get idiot end users using Password1 or Hello123 for their passwords. It's a tricky thing to balance and ideally the end users would understand why password complexity is a necessary thing now.
 

rsutoratosu

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2011
2,716
4
81
No our password doesn't change that often, 2x a year or if we determine someone is highly technical like another admin leaving, all password gets change again. But people keep their personal stuff at work on post it pads and in word document like that..
 

Abe Froman

Golden Member
Dec 14, 2004
1,065
18
81
We have 6 different passwords, all different lengths, cannot be the same, must include capital letter, symbol, lowercase letters and numbers. Longest is 16 characters, shortest is 8.

They all change at different times nothing changes together.
 

GoPackGo

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2003
6,521
597
126
Overly complicated passwords within an internal network should be unnecessary if the admins have good firewalls in place.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
We have 6 different passwords, all different lengths, cannot be the same, must include capital letter, symbol, lowercase letters and numbers. Longest is 16 characters, shortest is 8.

They all change at different times nothing changes together.

Sounds about like my work. Its so stupid...its not like I have access to nuclear launch codes.

So I just made a sticky note in Outlook with them all on it. I didn't technically write them down :)
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91
I just use a simple password thats similar across all my websites except I change something at the end unique to each website thats easy to figure out if you know what you're looking for.
 

rsutoratosu

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2011
2,716
4
81
I use to keep passwords in my iphone notepad :) just pwd lock the phone and hope i dont lose them
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.
In the end, it doesn't really matter. The way "hackers" get passwords is so stupid that it's almost insulting. Remember that Kevin Mitnick guy? He would do retarded shit like wear photocopied badges and physically go inside the building. Have a smoke break and talk with people who work there and go back inside with them. Just like that, all of your security systems have been bypassed. People let him inside the building; no hacked keycard needed.

Some of the more recent big hacks are just as dumb.
call the secretary: "hi, i'm blah blah, can you tell me the name of the network admin?"
call the IT people: "hi, this is (network admin) and I'm doing a test on the system, can you send a reset password to (some email account)"
*they send the reset password*
*log in as that person*
*download all of the hashed passwords then start hacking them*

You want in? Just ask. Lots of people will bend over backwards to help a friendly guy on the phone.

Sometimes this dumb shit is needed. I heard one first hand story where a woman was trying to close her husband's phone account. Why? He died. She tried to tell them that a million times over and they just didn't give a shit. You're dead? Well fuck you; you're now a Bell phone customer until the end of time (even after you've died!). She had a guy friend call as her husband and close the account. It's just stupid.
 
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Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
207
106
If the company really cared about security they would install fingerprint or RFID readers at their terminals, so fuck it.
 

rsutoratosu

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2011
2,716
4
81
my sister's place had retina scanner to get in the office, she said its was such a hassle to go to the bathroom each time, and you gotta scan in.. just annoying like password.
 

JimKiler

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2002
3,561
206
106
If your office requires you to change your password every 3 months, or has all sorts of ridiculous rules (must be 8-12 characters, must contain upper and lowercase letters, must contain a number, may NOT contain special characters, no repeating letters, may not use the same character more than twice, etc.), or requires you to keep a different password for absolutely everything... then yeah, what do you really expect?

Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.

Totally agreed. Because i have to have a number and special char on all my passwords across systems and certain special characters are used on one system but not the next i always end my password with -0 and those are universal. But if I use a different special character and it is not accepted on the next system i am screwed and have to remember multiple varations of the same password since our admins do not let us change our passwords more than 1 every 24 or 48 hours. I hear it is 24 but when i try after 24 it still fails.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
If the company really cared about security they would install fingerprint or RFID readers at their terminals, so fuck it.

right...or even voice authentication. Typed in passwords are more of a menace than anything. Make the hacker steal someone's eyeball or throat, no just guess some random digits.
 

GobBluth

Senior member
Sep 18, 2012
703
45
91
16 char, 2 upper, 2 lower, 2 numbers, 2 special char.

Guaranteed to make users write their passwords down!
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
If the company really cared about security they would install fingerprint or RFID readers at their terminals, so fuck it.
Same deal with drug tests. Things like cocaine and meth are gone from your system in a week. All your piss test shows is that someone was smart enough to stop taking drugs for a week. If you really wanted to their entire drug history, you would get a hair sample. Your hair stores information for weeks or months. As long as your hair is, that's how long your history is. Back in university, we did a test on an alcoholic's hair and we confirmed that you can detect alcholism for months afterward.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Same deal with drug tests. Things like cocaine and meth are gone from your system in a week. All your piss test shows is that someone was smart enough to stop taking drugs for a week. If you really wanted to their entire drug history, you would get a hair sample. Your hair stores information for weeks or months. As long as your hair is, that's how long your history is. Back in university, we did a test on an alcoholic's hair and we confirmed that you can detect alcholism for months afterward.

Please tell me you meant the presence of alcohol.
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,500
2,426
136
Workplace requires us to change pw every 3 months. Minimum 8 characters, must have a least 1 uppercase, and numerals. Cannot repeat/reuse previous pw.
I have 3 usernames for different nature of access, so I have to write pw on a sticker and put it on my wallet.
 
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Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
...I used to have them on a post it, then transferred them to my sketchbook thing that I usually keep in my bag. Hope I don't lose it...

And I keep all the passwords for my bank accounts and everything else in a small book on my computer table at home.
 

WackyDan

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
4,794
68
91
Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.

They are doing their job. I've seen customers fail audits just because their password length, complexity and age did not meet an industry or partner requirement. You can bet your ass if I owned a company, I wouldn't do business with one that had less security policy in place than my own.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
If your office requires you to change your password every 3 months, or has all sorts of ridiculous rules (must be 8-12 characters, must contain upper and lowercase letters, must contain a number, may NOT contain special characters, no repeating letters, may not use the same character more than twice, etc.), or requires you to keep a different password for absolutely everything... then yeah, what do you really expect?

Admins who impose those rules think they are improving security when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.

Ha three months. Ours is every two. It's a colossal PITA. I try to use strong passwords but I just end up making minor changes to existing ones just because I'm too lazy/can't think up new ones. Which probably makes security worse in the end.