Saturday, August 21, 2010

secure passwords

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Share this on:Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn How to create a 'super password' By John D. Sutter, CNN
August 20, 2010 9:49 a.m. EDT | Filed under: Innovation

Want to keep your online data secure? You may need a 12-character password, researchers say.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Researchers now say computer passwords should be 12 characters long

The old standard -- 8 characters -- won't stand up to sophisticated hacks

The news comes from the Georgia Institute of Technology

Researchers say you can use sentences as passwords these days
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Georgia Institute of Technology
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Carnegie Mellon University
(CNN) -- Say goodbye to those wimpy, eight-letter passwords.

The 12-character era of online security is upon us, according to a report published this week by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The researchers used clusters of graphics cards to crack eight-character passwords in less than two hours.

But when the researchers applied that same processing power to 12-character passwords, they found it would take 17,134 years to make them snap.

"The length of your password in some cases can dictate the vulnerability," said Joshua Davis, a research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

It's hard to say what will happen in the future, but for now, 12-character passwords should be the standard, said Richard Boyd, a senior research scientist who also worked on the project.

The researchers recommend 12-character passwords -- as opposed to those with 11 or, say, 13 characters -- because that number strikes a balance between "convenience and security."

They assumed a sophisticated hacker might be able to try 1 trillion password combinations per second. In that scenario, it takes 180 years to crack an 11-character password, but there's a big jump when you add just one more character -- 17,134 years.

Passwords have gotten longer over time, and security experts are already recommending that people use full sentences as passwords.

Here's one suggested password-sentence from Carnegie Mellon University:

"No, the capital of Wisconsin isn't Cheeseopolis!"

Or maybe something that's easier to remember, like this:

"I have two kids: Jack and Jill."

Even though advances in cheap computing power are making long, complicated passwords a necessity, not all websites will accommodate them, Boyd said.

It's best to use the longest and most complex password a site will allow, he said. For example, if a website will let you create a password with non-letter characters -- like "@y;}v%W$\5\" -- then you should do so.

There are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, but there are 95 letters and symbols on a standard keyboard. More characters means more permutations, and it soon becomes more difficult to for a computer to generate the correct password just by guessing.

Some websites allow for super-long passwords. The longest one Boyd has seen is at Fidelity.com, a financial site that lets users create 32-character passwords.

On a Microsoft website devoted to password security, the tech giant tells the password-creating public not to use real words or logical combinations of letters. That keeps you safer from a "dictionary attack," which uses a database of words and common character sequences to try to guess the code.

The Georgia Tech researchers carried out a "brute force" attack when they determined that passwords should be at least 12 characters long.

To do so, they deployed computer graphics cards, which are cheap and can be programmed to do basic computations very quickly.

The processors in those cards run simultaneously, trying to guess all of the possible password combinations. The more characters in a password, the more guesses are required.

But if your password has to be really long in order to keep up with this computational power -- and if you're supposed to have a new password for each website you frequent -- then how are you supposed to remember everything?

That's a real problem, the Georgia Tech researchers said.

There are a few solutions, however.

A website called Password Safe will store a list of passwords for you, but Boyd and Davis said it may still be possible for a hacker to obtain that list.

Other companies sell tokens that people carry around with them. These keychain-sized devices generate random numbers several times a minute, and users must enter those numbers and a shorter password to log in.

Some sites -- Facebook for example -- are marketing their log-ins and user names as a way to access sites all over the Web.

That's good for the user but is potentially dangerous because if hackers figure out a single password, they can access multiple banks of information, the researchers said.

The reason passwords have to keep getting longer is that computers and graphics cards are getting faster, the Georgia Tech researchers said.

"These things are really inexpensive -- just a few hundred dollars -- and they have a performance that's comparable to supercomputers of only just a few years ago," Boyd said of fast-processing graphics cards.

Maybe our brains will have to get bigger and faster, too. We'll need some way to remember these tome-like character strings.

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Caroline27 I don't get it. If the site asking for a password only allows for a few chances to get it right how can it be cracked? Also shouldn't companies look at the IP address. If it is unfamiliar then start asking personal question about the applicant to make sure it is actually the correct person.
19 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse
dershishishi I wish I could just associate all my online accounts with my fingerprint using my computer's fingerprint scanner.
25 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse
dershishishi I wish I could just associate all my online accounts with my fingerprint using my computer's fingerprint scanner.
25 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse
zotjaji1987 How to create a 'super security"
54 minutes ago | Like | Report abuse
bednacourt It only takes a bazillion years to guess the correct password if you save the correct one for last.
1 hour ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
theotherguy9 why don't we do away with passwords in the sense of typing them in and require a "key" then nobody has to remember their passwords just put a USB Flash drive like object that has unlimited potential of encryption (really if your password is a file that takes up 256MB and a character is (for easy ma... more
why don't we do away with passwords in the sense of typing them in and require a "key" then nobody has to remember their passwords just put a USB Flash drive like object that has unlimited potential of encryption (really if your password is a file that takes up 256MB and a character is (for easy math) 1byte , then your password would be 262,144,000,000 characters. Then take in all the different character Oh and then add fingerprint reader on the end. Try cracking that password! Then again it might take a while for you to log-in. less
1 hour ago | Like | Report abuse
theotherguy9 why don't we do away with passwords in the sense of typing them in and require a "key" then nobody has to remember their passwords just put a USB Flash drive like object that has unlimited potential of encryption (really if your password is a file that takes up 256MB and a character is (for easy ma... more
why don't we do away with passwords in the sense of typing them in and require a "key" then nobody has to remember their passwords just put a USB Flash drive like object that has unlimited potential of encryption (really if your password is a file that takes up 256MB and a character is (for easy math) 1byte , then your password would be 262,144,000,000 characters. Then take in all the diffrent character Oh and then add fingerprint reader on the end. Try cracking that password! Then again it might take a while for you to log-in. less
1 hour ago | Like | Report abuse
Blarndy In 40 years maybe we will all have supercomputers embedded in our heads. Passwords will be useless.
1 hour ago | Like | Report abuse
Fladabosco I wrote the article on writing passwords that was in Apple's TechInfo database for many years. I have two passwords I use regularly. One is a pun in a foreign language and the other is the pun in English. I only use the one in English on sites where I spend no money (such as here and Facebook) so if... more
I wrote the article on writing passwords that was in Apple's TechInfo database for many years. I have two passwords I use regularly. One is a pun in a foreign language and the other is the pun in English. I only use the one in English on sites where I spend no money (such as here and Facebook) so if someone cracks it it's no big deal. less
2 hours ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
zoomzoom9 You forget two basic pieces of information here: you assume that people won't speak the language of the password you use, and the other is that password hacking typically involves brute force, trying every combination of letters and numbers, which would render your foreign language password useless.
2 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
chengdu ...I used to live in the worst, gang infested area of southern California. For 10 years I never locked my house or car and never had a single problem...and I'm white!...password? I dont need any stinking password!
3 hours ago | Like (2) | Report abuse
bailoutsos It all has to do with respect. If everyone would respect other people, there would not be the problems other than those created by natural disasters.
2 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
gibben @y;}v%W$\5\
if people use that as passwords that is total bull i call shenanigans!
5 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
Jasmine79 The most frightening thing about this article (and these comments too) is how so many people who use computers know next to nothing about how they work.
5 hours ago | Like (3) | Report abuse
Fladabosco I think a computer is like a lawn mower. For most people if it does the job that's all they need to know.
2 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
krehator Pretty much. Lot's of people out there who mastered Facebook or managed to reinstall Windows on their systems *think* they know a lot.I get hit up every week by people who, according to their degrees, positions, and certifications, are experts. However they wouldn't know the difference between a D... more
Pretty much. Lot's of people out there who mastered Facebook or managed to reinstall Windows on their systems *think* they know a lot.

I get hit up every week by people who, according to their degrees, positions, and certifications, are experts. However they wouldn't know the difference between a Dallas RTC and a Dallas cheerleader. less
4 hours ago | Like (2) | Report abuse
NallaGanesh Not long ago, when technology was still invading my daily life, I used to remember almost 25 telephone numbers - each 7 or 8 digits long. When I started using mobile phone, I forgot my home wire-line number. I guess it is next to impossible to remember a 12 character password; and type the same corr... more
Not long ago, when technology was still invading my daily life, I used to remember almost 25 telephone numbers - each 7 or 8 digits long. When I started using mobile phone, I forgot my home wire-line number. I guess it is next to impossible to remember a 12 character password; and type the same correctly at one go - imagine the difficulties if you wish to keep your passwords unique for each site/account.

Ghosh, you might have to carry one more pocket-friendly-offline-electronic-gadget that just stores your various passwords! May be Apple would launch one, reading this comment! less
7 hours ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
Eherman It only takes 180 years to crack an 11 character code!!! Oh no!!!

Maybe banks and military installations need that sort of security. But seriously, nobody is going to devote 180 years to my accounts.
7 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
bailoutsos My Radio Shack TRS80 has the computing power to do it in a week.
3 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
krehator The same thing was said before. It is all related to the current technology, which as Awschitt pointed out is constantly improving.I doesn't take 180 years to crack 11 character codes either. Maybe with standard home processors that holds true.Any time the government puts out an advisement on key ... more
The same thing was said before. It is all related to the current technology, which as Awschitt pointed out is constantly improving.

I doesn't take 180 years to crack 11 character codes either. Maybe with standard home processors that holds true.

Any time the government puts out an advisement on key strength to the public. Rest assured they can already crack it.

Also a lot of time it's not the key length, but weaknesses in the cipher which can help things along.

Unless you plan on using an OTP for everything, which is a nightmare to manage, there is always going to be a way. less
4 hours ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
Aweschitt 180 years would not be a problem if technology were frozen in time. The problem is, in just a few years tech will have advanced enough to drop that 180 years to 180 minutes. I hope you're changing your Pwd more often than every few years... But what if the tech to turn 180 years to 180 minutes happe... more
180 years would not be a problem if technology were frozen in time. The problem is, in just a few years tech will have advanced enough to drop that 180 years to 180 minutes. I hope you're changing your Pwd more often than every few years... But what if the tech to turn 180 years to 180 minutes happens next week. Better to be safe than sorry. less
6 hours ago | Like (2) | Report abuse
jason22 Another alarmist, space waster of an article from a tech illiterate writer who doesn't know the difference between a login password and encryption code. Has everyone involved checked out their brains at the door? No real life online system allows trillions of password tries per second, and exceeding... more
Another alarmist, space waster of an article from a tech illiterate writer who doesn't know the difference between a login password and encryption code. Has everyone involved checked out their brains at the door? No real life online system allows trillions of password tries per second, and exceedingly few real life online systems have the capacity/bandwidth to accomodate that, even if we are to assume their password verification routine were coded by totally naive imbeciles. less
8 hours ago | Like (9) | Report abuse
krehator Today you are right. Years ago that was not the case. At one time many Unix systems left the hashed password files open for anyone to grab. Oh how I love the good ole crackerjack days of bust'n into shells!Also the discussion here has spread to other areas, such as file encryption, so it wasnt ju... more
Today you are right. Years ago that was not the case. At one time many Unix systems left the hashed password files open for anyone to grab. Oh how I love the good ole crackerjack days of bust'n into shells!

Also the discussion here has spread to other areas, such as file encryption, so it wasnt just limited to web page logins. less
2 hours ago | Like | Report abuse
Eherman Most accounts I know shut down after about four tries.
7 hours ago | Like (1) | Report abuse
PhuqEwe The length is not the problem, it is the width!
8 hours ago | Like (6) | Report abuse Load next 25 | View all comments
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