Does Your Business Use “Password1”? You’re Damned if You Do!

Oh leave it to Google News to brighten my day—everyday! I found a CNN Money story by Stacy Cowley “If You’re Using ‘Password1,’ Change it Now.” Really?

Apparently, this password is very popular for IT geniuses who install servers. Why? According to Cowley’s article, “…the reason for Password1’s popularity: "it has an upper-case  letter, a number and nine characters.” The story went on to say apparently this (password) “satisfies the complexity rules for many systems.” This includes Microsoft’s Active Directory identity management software.

I don’t know about you, but Microsoft is pretty popular unless you’re my son-in-law who says someday, “I too will be assimilated to Apple.” Nah, don’t think so dude!

I guess ‘Password1’ comes up around 5 percent of the time and second in line is really awesome—it’s ‘welcome.’ The one that really surprised me are the IT Mensa installers who think leaving the password section blank is a grand idea.

When I was running two businesses with two servers, my IT guy’s passwords were so very complex, we had to often either find the piece of paper my husband wrote them on or call IT Georgie. Somehow I don’t think IT Georgie would ever use passwords this easy to break, but apparently IT servers everywhere have these passwords and those nasty folks are hacking in.

Some people even use ‘Password1’ on their smartphones – how smart I must say!

I’m no IT expert and my friends will tell you as a Baby Boomer, I’m no digital media expert either. I’m confused about #FF on Twitter, I want to Retweet but don’t know how and as far as the new Facebook timeline goes I don’t like it! Why do I want to see a timeline that goes back to 1959! Jeez Facebook come on now!

Still, this popular security feature needs some attention! Experts say using @#5LX&(((578 may be a good password because who’s going to guess that or a variation of that?

I love watching movies and television shows where the police labs or crooks use a password breakers and you see what looks like a slot machine with every changing numbers, letters and symbols twirling around. Every once in a while, one will stop and there are screams of delight—we’re almost in! Really? Is it that easy?

If it is, I guess I want in on it. I’m not sure what server I’d want to hack but it would probably be a large pet retailer. Why you ask? I have six dogs—they are all BIG dogs and not what my husband and I like to call the “kick me” variety. If they jump on you, your chest sinks. If they step on your foot, you get a broken toe, etc.

We use around 150 pounds of dog food a month and they love toys. One dog toy alone can cost around nine bucks! And, all my precious little dogs do is tear them apart until they find the squeaky insert or pull all the stuffing out. I’m fond of those dog toys that say “no stuffing.” Great for the company that developed them, but they aren’t “rip proof!”

My Pit Bull Louie can eat a long rawhide chew in two bites and its gone. Rawhide bones are not cheap either. They all love playing pretty physically and I have to replace collars and dog tags often so I know who they are—you try remembering six dog names!

I got in trouble once with the folks that make the smart fortwo car. First I thought it was sort of dumb to not put the words ‘smart’ and ‘fortwo’ in proper case but that’s not really what angered them. As I was reading the specs for the smart fortwo, they pointed out the Tridion cell (apparently it’s ok to capitalize Tridion) is developed using the walnut shell principal.

What this means is if you’re in a wreck in the smart fortwo, you won’t break, but roll. I begged to differ as Pit Bull Louie can also break a walnut in two bites and that baby’s gone! Anyway, I got a letter from some senior VP who went on and on about how safe the smart fortwo is but if you’ve seen them, they may be “smart” but they are really small—give me a big ass SUV any day!

So, what’s your password? If it’s your last name, that’s sort of dumb too! If your business name is ABC Hardware and your password is ‘Abchardware’ that’s also dumb.

Actually I’m not really shocked about the simplicity of passwords. With technology changing so fast, these IT guys and gals are busy folks. I wonder what passwords they use on their home systems. Hmmm? I wonder how many cereal box tops I have to save to get a password decoder ring.

CNN Money Story, retrieved 3/2/12

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