Password Complexity in the Enterprise?

andrewa asks: "What's the deal with passwords in a corporate environment these days? The company I work for has introduced layer upon layer of complexity on passwords over the years, and now it is simply ridiculous. We have to enter a 16 character password each month that cannot compare in any digits to the previous twelve passwords, nor can it be a simple string -- it has to be a mixture of upper- and lower-case characters including numerals and non-alphanumerical characters. What's next? A mixture of non-keyboard accessible characters and several varieties of DNA? It's not like we are even a government institute -- we are a software company that does telecom stuff, for goodness sake. Anyway ... you know what this makes me do? Write it down somewhere. How secure is that? The question is, I think my company is completely anal with the password requirements, what other security policies are in place in other companies that either completely exceed the banality of my company, or -- God forbid -- have a security system that makes sense?"

Comments

Skroob.

[Tackhead]

> We have to enter a 16 character password each month that cannot compare in any digits to the previous twelve passwords, nor can it be a simple string -- it has to be a mixture of upper- and lower-case characters including numerals and non-alphanumerical characters.

"0123456789aBcDeF"

That's amazing. I've got the same password on my 6-piece luggage set!

Re:Skroob.

[Captain Splendid]

Dude, you need a new joke.

On the Enterprise?

[mph]

I know a few...

"Theta alpha two seven three seven blue"

"One one A"
"One one A two B"
"One B two B 3"
"Zero zero zero destruct zero"

But usually, voice identification is enough.

Re:On the Enterprise?

[poena.dare]

Yeah, I used to go for super duper password complexity on the Enterprise, but Data kept mimicking my voice, so what's the point? You can't win.

Re:Well, this is a classic dilemma

[tomhudson]

Of course writing your password down and keeping it in your wallet or purse is better ... follow the MONEY!.

Just use the serial number off a piece of currency, and a few letters, and you're gold. Just don't spend your password,

Re:That's not too strange

[alfs boner]

Also:

Slashdot users are uneducated unemployed and overweight

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SurU2a0

Slashdot users frequently complain about things, despite being overlooked and ignored because of their ignorance.

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sUfcaTdb0a1b0t1

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Goatees are stupid, especially on effeminate, pudgy computer nerds; they didn't even look good in the 1990s.

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Diabetes is god's way of telling you to lose weight, and that you look disgusting.

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d1gW0tyT1w47yLd

Re:Simpleton passwords are my friends at work

[rabiddeity]

You didn't happen to work for a company called "UNATCO", did you? I know a lot of their passwords were like that.

Re:That's not too strange

[bigmouth_strikes]

> Goatees are stupid, especially on effeminate, pudgy computer nerds; they didn't even look good in the 1990s.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

Re:Suggested to me:

[the phantom]

That can't be Celtic -- too many vowels.