If we're honest, many of us are likely guilty of using sub-par passwords. However, chances are, if we were hacked, no one but us would have to know about it. The same can't be said for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who is facing public ridicule after his account was compromised.
It seems al-Assad recently became the target of web hactivist group Anonymous; the group managed to successfully hack into his email account this week. That said, we imagine the job was something of a bore for Anonymous, which just last week revealed that it had managed to eavesdrop on a phone call between Scotland Yard and the FBI. After all, it can't have taken much hacking prowess to access an account protected with the world's second weakest password: 12345. To make matters worse, Anonymous was also able to access 78 accounts belonging to al-Assad's staff, with 33 of them using the same 12345 or 123456 passwords.
Forbes cites Israel's Haaretz newspaper in reporting that the attacked the mail server of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs overnight on Sunday. The breach has resulted in hundreds of emails from al-Assad and his staff being leaked. Among them was correspondence between Syrian UN Mission Sheherazad Jaafari and Assad's media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban discussing preparation for the president's interview with Barbara Walters.
Syria's no stranger to the attention of Anonymous at this point. In August of 2011, the group hacked the government's defence ministry. Just a few weeks later, they hacked into and vandalized several of the country's government websites. '
Here I sometimes have to gain access to people computers when they are fired or whatever, and probably 3 out of 4 times I can guess their password without having to reset it first or log in through the backdoor admin access.
Heck about 1/4 of our people have their password on a post-a-note on their monitor.
-------------------- Respect the previous generation, we graduated without Google or Wikipedia.
Here I sometimes have to gain access to people computers when they are fired or whatever, and probably 3 out of 4 times I can guess their password without having to reset it first or log in through the backdoor admin access.
Heck about 1/4 of our people have their password on a post-a-note on their monitor.
Geez,.. thats just scary
-------------------- If at first you don't succeed, Skydiving isn't for you
Heck about 1/4 of our people have their password on a post-a-note on their monitor.
I see this all the time... hilarious. Whats the point?
Some might not care if someone in the company needs/wants to gain access to the computer but if someone hacks in from the outside obviously they can't see the post-it note on the computer screen.
All of the places I've been, the people who need access have it and their own PC. The people that dont need access dont. Passwords taped to desks and monitors pretty much flush that all down the toilet.
-------------------- “If worms had guns, birds wouldn’t eat ‘em.”
Wow. Figures though, it's like outsmarting one's self. Nobody will expect Metcalf up the middle kind of thing.
I thought I had a strong password until I saw the cartoon Deisel linked to. I don't know if the math is really correct in that cartoon but it makes a world of sense.
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