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Crack a Password, Save Norwegian History
Christian writes "With the death of the only person who knew the password to an archive held at a museum in Norway, suddenly the data became inaccessible. The result? A nationwide radio appeal asking for "hackers" to volunteer to help solve the problem! The
Norway Post has the story." I wonder if they looked under his keyboard yet..
Do you really want to see your bank manager every time you change any one of your passwords?
You do change them, right?
Or every time you get a password for a new service?
A better idea would be to keep the password to your private key in that bank safe, which decrypts your personal password file that you update regularly.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
The probability of a sysadmin dying is not large
On the contrary, it's 100%. It's not a question of if, it's of when.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
This is actually a pretty serious issue with any kind of system where only one person has the password.
The ISP I once working for nearly went out of business several years back because the only tech with high level access was in a serious car accident and out of action for a month or so.
Its all very well not writing down passwords, and saying that nothing is going to happen to you, but in the real world, people get ill, run over, fall down etc. - In large companies its more then likely not a problem, but in a small company that has only one tech person doing everything, people need to make sure there is a plan of action for if that person becomes unreachable for any reason.
I saw the light at the end of the tunnel... But it was just someone with a flashlight bringing more work.
Whenever I go on vacation, I keep what I call my "Hit By A Bus" document on the system. It's password encrypted and I give that to whomever I deem necessary. It contains passwords, procedures, etc of everything that I do. Then, after returning, I change as many passwords as I can...
Simple, easy.