Stolen Hotmail Data Finds Simple Passwords

[DiscoDuck]

My son has a gmail account with the name sendmespamhere or to that effect that he gives out to online requests and only checks it when he needs the redirect for security.

 

[ssalim]

Brings back memory of "Space ball" movie.

 

[tayb]

How could a hacker target a demographic? You don't have to select and as far as I can tell aren't even given an OPTION to choose your ethnicity or race. From what I read the hackers only got the first two letters of the alphabet which, from my personal experience taking attendance in college courses, Hispanic first and last names start with the letter A much more often than do American first and last names. Sounds more like a coincidence than it does a racially driven hotmail attack.

 

[nachowarrior]

well... that just goes to show how stupid people are. It's just as easy to remember a phrase and use that as your password... EG: My Balls Itch Every Sunday Morning Until I Put Syrup On My Cereal. equates to MBIESMUIPSOMC as a password... effed up and long. Throw some numbers in there, and you can e\/en make it rhyme for a mnemonic de\/ice... just don't use alliteration... hahaha.

 

[nachowarrior]

oh, and i'm surprised to not see 8675309 in there...

 

[rooket]

I used to use a password that was all numbers like 60626466 I dunno if that is easy to figure out or not but it was easy to remember. that site is long gone now.

hmm maybe people use simple passwords because there isn't anything important in their email account. you know some of these younger people only email friends with it and there's like no bank account and stuff attached so really nothing to worry about.

also this type of article makes it exceedingly simple to search for the password list on the web. I found it one day and made sure my name wasn't in there. I think the site hosting it is kind of lame for not keeping an eye on things. I mean an admin should be able to do a quick search every here and then and delete those. Just shows how secure things are in the real world on sites like that.