Microsoft Wants To Give You A Rorschach

Preedit writes "Microsoft has set up a website that uses inkblot images to help users create passwords. The site asks users view a series of inkblots and write down the first and last letters of whatever word they associate with each inkblot. Then they combine the letters to form a password. Microsoft claims it's a way to create passwords that are easy to remember but hard to crack. But a word of warning, the story notes that Microsoft is collecting and storing users' word associations."

Comments

Not sure this will help

[Qzukk]

view a series of inkblots and write down the first and last letters of whatever word they associate with each inkblot. Then they combine the letters to form a password.

I got vavavapsva.

More seriously, if they're saving the word associations, doesn't that mean that they have the password you've just generated?

Re:Not sure this will help

[BarryJacobsen]

vulva vulva vulva penis vulva? I'm not sure whether I should be afraid of your mind or the site... Really? I'm not sure whether I should be afraid of his mind or immediately go to the site...

Don't do it...

[daninspokane]

The blots are coded to shut your brain down if you don't have a valid regkey.

Ballmer's unencrypted file

[Eberlin]

Anyone wanna bet Ballmer's word list looks a bit like this:
chair
developers
chair
banana
ooohshiny
developers!
developers!
developers!

Re:Slight problem with this approach

[oahazmatt]

This method will not create passwords that are strong enough.

That's why I use the inkblot test, run it through a script that converts random letter combinations to MD5, convert 25% of that end result to l33t, and then randomly add a non-latin character at two locations within that result. I then write it down on my desk calendar.