Password Fail

At work the other day I had left myself signed in on my computer and then gone to a different part of the building and needed to sign in on another computer... this in itself was a pretty stupid thing to do but I couldn't be bothered to go back up the zillion steps back to my desk when I was actually heading out to lunch. So a colleague said I could sign in using their log in.

As I entered the details as they told me I stopped and froze... the password was 123456. I was afraid to type in those numbers incase the computer shouted at me PASSWORD FAIL. Do people still use such obvious passwords these days? Argh. I may have ranted a little... ok a lot and they have now changed their password. But seriously that's way too obvious and I know these days it's all pin numbers, passwords, memorable info, mothers maiden name and it can be way too much info to store in our brains but you seriously shouldn't have anything that is at all obvious. I think 123456 is a default password for most new log ins at places I've worked or password is the other obvious one.

An interesting way to do your passwords is to come up with a phrase that you'll remember, for example;

people will drive hover cars one day

Then take the first letters of each word so you have - pwdhcod

Then depending on what your password is for you can add an extra letter for the account the password is for, so if it's for facebook you could add an f, twitter add a t and so on...

Obviously some passwords ask for a numbers etc but this could be added too but someone is rarely going to be able to guess your phrase... it's a pretty cool way I think of doing a password. 

THAT IS NOT MY PHRASE BY THE WAY!

It did take me ages to come up with that phrase though. :-)

Don't use 123456 it's way too obvious and you've only got yourself to blame for having such an easy hackable password!

I should add after going to lunch I rang another colleague and asked him to sign me out of my login, that's my fail... walking away from my desk without logging off. It logs me out after ten minutes non use but still... it's almost as bad as leaving your facebook unattended and random updates going through... You know who you are ;-)

Also it's still probably not a good idea to use someone else's log in... I'm almost as bad as using 123456 but you get the point right. Twonk!