Is Your Password "Password?"

[Lucky]

Hackers hit websites owned by Gawker media today, shutting them down. The hackers also discovered the names of users at the site who used the word "password" as their password!

If kids can shut down Gawker media, can they shut down MER?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/business/media/13gawker.html?_r=1&hp

Gawker responds:

Our user databases appear to have been compromised. The passwords were encrypted. But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack. You should change your Gawker password and on any other sites on which you've used the same passwords.

We're deeply embarrassed by this breach. We should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers who identified the weakness in our systems. And, yes, the irony is not lost on us. For tips on creating strong passwords, see this post on Lifehacker.

Which is: http://lifehacker.com/184773/geek-to-live--choose-and-remember-great-passwords

[TotallyOz]

Gawker is a great but it is often controversial and they were attacked. I had an account there and changed my password for it and a few other sites.

I would never have a password called Password.

[Guest FourAces]

There was an article about two months ago on the worse passwords people use and the high percentage that use them. I believe the word password was either number one or two. The other most used is 123456 and 12345678. I tried to find the article without any success.

I really don't change my password often but as I posted about a month ago I was looking for a better way and there were several suggestions in that thread. If I recall I went with a variation of Anton's suggestion. But still have not had time to update them all.

Can MER be hit absolutely but I doubt anybody would bother.

[lookin]

Can MER be hit absolutely but I doubt anybody would bother.

I dunno. I keep worrying that Fred Phelps will be out googling Palm Springs weekends one day, and stumble across our happy home.

Of course, with our luck, he'll probably decide he likes the place and start posting under KansasKutie.

[Lucky]

The most common passwords at gawker:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/most-common-passwords_n_796626.html

[Lucky]

Google spent $500,000 to clean up after a hacker attack. How many smaller websites could afford costs like that?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/f-b-i-memos-reveal-cost-of-a-hacking-attack/?ref=business