July 21, 2013

There were 2 posts published on July 21, 2013 (this is page 1 of 1).

Poor password management by banks

I recently signed up to the site of one of my (many) 401K administrators. When it came time to pick a password for my account, I was disappointed to see the kind of restrictions the bank put on my choice of password:

Password requirements:

Must contain 8 – 20 characters
Must contain at least one letter and one number
Is case sensitive (e.g. “MyPassword” with an uppercase “M” and “P” is different from “mypassword” with a lowercase “m” and “p”)
Cannot contain any spaces
Cannot contain special characters (e.g. !#$%^&@,;*( )+~?<>‘\”)
Cannot contain more than 2 of the same consecutive letters or numbers (e.g. aaa or 222)
Cannot be the same as your previous 6 passwords
Cannot be the same as your Username

I understand some of these, but not allowing spaces or special characters? That significantly reduces the complexity of available passwords, making the password easier to crack. Now perhaps they get around this by giving the user x number of tried before locking her out, but why not just allow special characters?
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Nathan Woessner, rescued from sand dune, now in good condition

I remember reading the news that this 6-year-old boy had survived after being buried in a sand dune for hours. His condition was just upgraded to “good” and he could make a full recovery.

There are still things that science cannot fully explain. It’s a miracle this boy is alive.

The boy rescued last week after being buried for hours in an Indiana sand dune has had his condition upgraded to good as his health continues to improve, hospital officials said today.

Thursday, word came that Nathan Woessner was sitting up, watching cartoons and talking. He was taken off a ventilator and had begun to breathe on his own.

via Nathan Woessner, rescued from sand dune, now in good condition – chicagotribune.com.