Here's a *BRILLIANT* password idea!

nelson at ishmael nelson at ishmael
Wed Dec 7 02:22:00 AEST 1988


The BayBanks system (Eastern Mass.) lets you pick your own password up
to 6 characters long (they use a telephone-like alphabet/numeric scheme).
I was rather surprised, however, to discover that only the first 4
characters of my 6 character password are checked.  In fact, I heard of a
case where someone had lost their card and whose account was
subsequently pilfered.  As a password she had used the first 4 letters
of her name followed by two dummy letters.

I realize that this is pretty far from Unix, but there is a lesson
somewhere.  If nothing else, BayBanks users beware.

  - Nelson

Nelson Lerner
uunet!inmet!nelson
nelson at inmet.inmet.com



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