Is this new?
Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:37 am
Just tried to log in and got this. First time I've seen it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/Tijiri/what the heck.jpg
(in case it got resized, here's the message)
STOP! Your password's not secure enough!
Your password can't be all letters. Please add numbers or any of the characters !@#$%^&*+. _() to it.
Please use the Help link in the left-side menu to go to the User Prefs page. You can change your password there.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/Tijiri/what the heck.jpg
(in case it got resized, here's the message)
STOP! Your password's not secure enough!
Your password can't be all letters. Please add numbers or any of the characters !@#$%^&*+. _() to it.
Please use the Help link in the left-side menu to go to the User Prefs page. You can change your password there.
Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:11 am
Yes it's new, they added that on Aug 11th to stop password guessers 
Re: Is this new?
Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:12 am
.:Requiem:. wrote:Just tried to log in and got this. First time I've seen it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/Tijiri/what the heck.jpg
(in case it got resized, here's the message)
STOP! Your password's not secure enough!
Your password can't be all letters. Please add numbers or any of the characters !@#$%^&*+. _() to it.
Please use the Help link in the left-side menu to go to the User Prefs page. You can change your password there.
No actully it's kinda old. It's another security thing there doing now, from now on when you create a new account or try to change your password, you must you letters and numbers. It was announced in the news maybe a week or so ago
Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:52 am
I remember that announcement. It's very good, too. This will help reduce the amount of password guessers and hacked accounts.
I read someplace that the most secure kind of password is your name with alternating numbers in between each letter.
Say your name is "John". Since there are four letters in the name, you'd get four numbers. The numbers you use could be the last four digits of your phone number--or even better, your Social Security Number, something like "9274." Hence, the new password would be "j9o2h7n4."
It's amazing how well that works, too, because that would be a hard password to guess.
I read someplace that the most secure kind of password is your name with alternating numbers in between each letter.
Say your name is "John". Since there are four letters in the name, you'd get four numbers. The numbers you use could be the last four digits of your phone number--or even better, your Social Security Number, something like "9274." Hence, the new password would be "j9o2h7n4."
It's amazing how well that works, too, because that would be a hard password to guess.
Sat Aug 20, 2005 5:22 am
Yep, always mix up the characters and letters in your passwords.
Sat Aug 20, 2005 5:26 am
soymimi wrote:I remember that announcement. It's very good, too. This will help reduce the amount of password guessers and hacked accounts.
I read someplace that the most secure kind of password is your name with alternating numbers in between each letter.
Say your name is "John". Since there are four letters in the name, you'd get four numbers. The numbers you use could be the last four digits of your phone number--or even better, your Social Security Number, something like "9274." Hence, the new password would be "j9o2h7n4."
It's amazing how well that works, too, because that would be a hard password to guess.
If there's any pattern to it at all I'd assume it can be guessed by a desperate hacker/cracker/scammer/whatever they're called these days. Personally I just bring up MSWord and look away from the keyboard, poking at random letters and numbers and then see what I come up with. Hasn't failed me yet. Throw in some capital letters too, that makes it even harder. g7iL9pF02s <--- see
(...don't use that, anyone o.o)
Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:22 am
it is newish...it has just been added so people will change their password to something with numbers inside it so it will help prevent pasword gueses
Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:22 pm
Do they do anything to you if you keep it all letters, or is it optional?
Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:54 pm
.:Requiem:. wrote:Do they do anything to you if you keep it all letters, or is it optional?
I haven't changed mine yet- and all I get is the warning each time I try to log in. Nothing else though.
Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:27 pm
From the August 11 News:
So this is fairly recent, IMO. If you either don't read the News or haven't been on the site then there would be no way of knowing. That screenie is weird, I have to say. I think my heart would stop - isn't that the same awful frozen chia?!
It does look like, from reading the news, that you can use letters and symbols. I make it a habit to use nonsense passwords - upper and lower case letters and numbers - for everything. Of course, this means I have to write everything down because most of mine make no sense whatsoever. I do the same kind of thing with security questions (like for my email) - the answer is always something really bizarre that has nothing to do with the question.
Never use your name, your pet's name, your sibling, etc. name, your birthday or SS number (if you have one). Those the baddies do look for. Oh, and use a completely different password for everything. It's a pain, but it's worth it.
We are making some changes to passwords and logging in. If you create an account from Friday onwards, or if you change your password, you must now use a combination of letters AND numbers (or symbols).
We recommend you change your password to something with numbers and letters anyway as this will make it more secure and harder to guess.
So this is fairly recent, IMO. If you either don't read the News or haven't been on the site then there would be no way of knowing. That screenie is weird, I have to say. I think my heart would stop - isn't that the same awful frozen chia?!
It does look like, from reading the news, that you can use letters and symbols. I make it a habit to use nonsense passwords - upper and lower case letters and numbers - for everything. Of course, this means I have to write everything down because most of mine make no sense whatsoever. I do the same kind of thing with security questions (like for my email) - the answer is always something really bizarre that has nothing to do with the question.
Never use your name, your pet's name, your sibling, etc. name, your birthday or SS number (if you have one). Those the baddies do look for. Oh, and use a completely different password for everything. It's a pain, but it's worth it.
Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:54 am
Yep, passwords which are all letters or all numbers are harder to guess =).
Another way to make it more secure is to use the special characters like ()!+= or whatever else you can use. If you stick it in somewhere (maybe in the middle of a word), it'll be more secure.
I usually made some letters a similar number. For example, if I'm typing lets say, book as a password, I'd do: b0ok or bo0k. (don't use that, obviously, it's too short anyways) I guess that would make it a little easier to guess, but I think it's hard enough. Besides, you need to remember it -.-".
If I did that, I'd be in danger of losing all my accounts because I'd forget them so easily. Right now, I use about 4 passwords total, so if one doesn't work I can easily try another XD.
Another way to make it more secure is to use the special characters like ()!+= or whatever else you can use. If you stick it in somewhere (maybe in the middle of a word), it'll be more secure.
I usually made some letters a similar number. For example, if I'm typing lets say, book as a password, I'd do: b0ok or bo0k. (don't use that, obviously, it's too short anyways) I guess that would make it a little easier to guess, but I think it's hard enough. Besides, you need to remember it -.-".
everconfused wrote:Oh, and use a completely different password for everything. It's a pain, but it's worth it.
If I did that, I'd be in danger of losing all my accounts because I'd forget them so easily. Right now, I use about 4 passwords total, so if one doesn't work I can easily try another XD.