PASSWORD GUESSING

[Kemp at DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL]

Any time a human tries to think up a "random" password, chances are it
won't be as "random" as a machine could choose.  So why not have the
machine generate it for you, and stop worrying.  The system I am using
now enforces the use of machine-generated pronounceable passwords, and
VMS systems can also generate them, although our system managers didn't
make them mandatory.  I think there are similar programs floating around
the unix archives.

  It usually only takes three or four tries before the machine comes up
with something that conjures up outrageous images or is vaguely obscene,
like the trick used by people who memorize long lists of numbers.

  My favorite machine password (long since expired :-)) was "biwithmi" -
a sort of computer proposition!

    Dave Kemp  <Kemp at dockmaster.ncsc.mil>