Slashdot Mirror
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."
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?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
microsoft is collecting and storing the data. holy crap, batman, what next. the joker has plans to take over gotham city?
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
This method will not create passwords that are strong enough. A truly strong password should have at least three of the following, if not all four:
Uppercase letters
Lowercase letters
Numbers
Non-Latin characters (i.e. symbols)
Every password I use has at least three, even for free-registration-required sites...
So, psyche 101 was a long time ago, and that's the extent of my exposure to it.
Do individual people respond to the same inkblots, the same way over time? Or might I see the same splotch in 3 months and associate something else with it? If there's drift over time, this wouldn't be such a good idea.
Anyone with a better schooling in human psychology care to chime in?
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The blots are coded to shut your brain down if you don't have a valid regkey.
Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
Anyone wanna bet Ballmer's word list looks a bit like this:
chair
developers
chair
banana
ooohshiny
developers!
developers!
developers!
From the actual site:
Security and privacy of this service
InkblotPassword.com is a research project deployed by Microsoft Research. It is for demonstration and research purposes only. You are welcome to try it out, but we make absolutely no promise that our implementation will protect your password. Don't use your account here to protect any data you care about, from money to your reputation. We also make no promise that the site will continue running. Should the service prove successful, Microsoft may consider offering the service as a commercial product or service. For now, consider it an unreliable, insecure service run by a couple research coneheads in their spare time, and trust it accordingly.
So they have created a method for creating hard to crack passwords while simultaneously collecting the data to more easily crack them?
The cake is a pie
Common sense might.
...is penguins.
FLR
That site has one of the best captcha's I've ever seen.
Please select all the cats. Pictures supplied (and sponsored) by petfinder.com. Brilliant. Even HAL-9000 might not be able to do that.
I usually suggest to people that they come up with a positive self talk phrase, take the first letter of each word, then replace a letter with a number that resembles it.
Something like "I am a happy person who loves their life." turns into "Iaahpwlt1", which is long, contains numbers and letters and no dictionary words whatsoever.
You end up repeating it to yourself every time you log in, which serves double duty as both a mnemonic device and a way to preserve your positive attitude.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
"Emo, what does this inkblot look like to you?"
I said, "Oh, it's kind of embarrassing."
He said, "Emo, everyone sees something, so don't be embarrassed. Tell me what the inkblot looks like to you."
I said, "Well, to me it looks like standard pattern #3 in the Rorschach series to test obsessive compulsiveness." And he gets kind of depressed.
I said, "Okay, it's a butterfly." And he cheers up.
He said, "What does this inkblot look like?"
I said, "It looks like a horrible ugly blob of pure evil that sucks the souls of man into a vortex of sin and degradation."
He said, "No, um, the inkblot's over there. That's a photo of my wife you're looking at."
"Oh," I said, "was I far off?" He said, "No. That's the sad part."
"Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes."
I use mnemonic devices also, but perhaps I should rethink my current "Nobody loves me, I wish I were dead" password. Oh, what's the use. It wouldn't matter anyway.
A self-motivational phrase whose initials double as a secure password? That's a great idea!
Here, let me try one:
People Always Say Something's Wrong Or Really Depressing.
Awesome! I'll use it on all my accounts!
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!