Comments for Web and graphic design by Dan Sullivan

Comment on Social Media Paradigms: Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus by Tim C. Bowling

Tim C. Bowling — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:07:35 +0000

But only VERY tech savvy people are on Google+ my Grandmother, Mother and uh Uncle Jim Bob aren’t going 2 be using it for years. Facebook’s new privacy setting block social media overload for the “common man”.~ TCB

Comment on Keyword Passwords to Avoid Hackers by Dan

Dan — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:01:03 +0000

OH NO!
Thanks to the Gawker hack and this blog post, some dirtbag now has access to my keyword. All they have to do is see C0ff33gawkcup and I’m busted.

Thanks for the tips Will.

Comment on Keyword Passwords to Avoid Hackers by Will

Will — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:51:09 +0000

Oh, forgot to mention a technique for the multiple-password problem: to keep everything truly in your head while staying sane, come up with levels of severity. Tiered passwords.

For example: computer logins, banks, email, social, and other. Passwords can be reused within those tiers, but never between them. That way if your twitter password gets cracked, your email password is different, but you only have to remember about 5 total passwords across your whole life.

Comment on Keyword Passwords to Avoid Hackers by Will

Will — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:44:26 +0000

That actually isn’t much better than making everything “C0ff33cup” because an attacker would see your entry in the database like so: Dan:AObI3AM7nqKUc:dan@creativeiscreative.com (just an example.) Then they would crack your password (the junk in between the : symbols) and come back with C0ff33googcup, realize what the ‘goog’ means, and then try logging in as Dan or dan@creativeiscreative.com with “C0ff33twitcup” on Twitter, for example.

The best passwords are passwords that aren’t english, aren’t simple patterns, and aren’t related to anything (i.e. no proper nouns.)

My security professor gave an example: flip to a random page in a book and take the first 2-3 words, then represent those words without proper english, so “affected by” becomes “af3ct3d-by” — this is orders of magnitude harder to crack than “monkey”. I personally like to write out phrases like “4 sc0re and 7ven” — nobody said you couldn’t use spaces!