C:net - Ten Common Sense Security Tips

11 years ago

Good article over on C:net about basic security. It also includes a link to a website that evaluates password strength.

Definitely worth a read!

Oh, and how long would it take for the average desktop PC to crack the password for my bank account? 18 tredecillion years. I don't know how long that really is but I'm guessing the account will long be closed and the bank out of business before it happens! ;-)

Comments (5)

mikie_gw
11 years ago
I have a bank account with 17 cents in it.
Thought they would bill me a service charge or something but they dont.
Its an interest bearing account.

I'm wondering when that ..Someday.. will come,,, that my heirs could become rich from interest earned.
not2bright
11 years ago
I've tried, off and on, to read some web articles -- and, of course, the comments -- on things like this, and one will always find someone commenting and saying that they have been able to crack supposedly 'strong' passwords in a much shorter amount of time than the calculations say. (One small example: see here and scroll down toward the bottom to a comment by "Shane" responding to "Randy.")

Granted, these people are probably not using an "average desktop PC." Still, it makes one wonder how accurate these results ("Your Password will take X years to crack") are. (And, of course, by the same token we don't really know if so-and-so did crack some account in the time they claim. It's one person's word against another's.)

Surely, the longer and more complex a password/passcode is, the better. But just as surely it won't be too long before some technology will come around that will knock a hundred trillion years off such calculations. :-/
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Thank you again to all contributors- can only imagine how many wasted dollars and visual mistakes you're preventing by taking time to write. Hopefully, this thread comes up in google weeks or months from now when someone does a BS search, so non-GW members can benefit from this advice too. It's really tough to find common-sense advice online about backsplashes - I see tons of product sales spiels or superficial noise (choose a color that's pleasing to you, consider all the wonderful options out there, blah blah blah".) Basically useless. Nothing as valuable as what I'm reading here. Rococogurl - I'm afraid I definitely broke your rule! Lots of time spent on cabs, counters, upfront. Thanks for a particularly in-depth contribution. Deee:I am dealing with exactly the challenge you mention. This BS can be seen by entire open LR/DR layout. Hard enough coordinating a BS to kitchen elements, let alone most of house. Next house, no open layouts!
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It makes sense to me?
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Did you bother to read what I wrote at all before telling me I'm wrong? I wasn't talking about father who, for whatever reason, are less involved than they should be. I was specifically talking about fathers who ARE. I wrote a whole paragraph talking about fathers who ARE. Maybe there are "far too many cases, a very involved father steps back from his involvement with his children as soon as a woman comes into the picture and lets/encourages/requires the stepmother to take over many of the parenting responsibilities." What in the name of god's green earth does that have to do with families where that DOESN'T happen. My whole point was to address the actual family and the actual situation, not some hypothetical deadbeat dad/uninvolved father stereotype that exists in some other family. Whether you like it or not, stepmothers are family. Even my sisters-in-law are family, and I didn't meet them until I was an adult. My SM has been in my life since I was 14, in my brother's since he was 3. We lived in the same house. She helped teach my how to drive. In no way did that lessen either of my parent's involvement; I needed lots of practice! Stepmoms should bond, too. "Sometimes it takes a bit of effort on a biological mother's part to encourage father-child bonding in an intact family. Often babies and toddlers want their mom, but it is good to encourage their relationship with dad (as long as the mom continues to breastfeed the baby). It should be somewhat easier for a stepmother to encourage the relationship between father and child."-- but that doesn't mean mom should not be involved, just that both parents should. Again, I agree that IF dad is not a fully involved parent, he should be encouraged (by mom, stepmom, grandma, anyone available) to become one. However, that doesn't mean SM can't also be involved, and it has no bearing whatsover on families where dad already IS involved.
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LOL, Jay. I do love your energy. :) While I've been very happy to see a couple of ladybugs and assassin bugs monitoring my tropical MWs and chomping aphids, I realize they may also be eating the baby cats. Oh, well. Right now, I've got at least 25-30 monarch cats keeping me plenty busy. (I continue to have the worst time keeping my MW cuttings from wilting, and I've tried every technique at my disposal. I wonder if it's just the season. During springtime, I would harvest the MW branches, rinse them off, and jam them into jars -- they stayed fine for days. Now, I can't keep them 'alive' more than a few hours.) I keep my chrysalises out of the direct sun if I can. These days, with highs in the mid 90s ('feels like' temps well over 100), I don't want to take any chances frying my chrysalises. I have them outdoors, but in all-day shade. I wouldn't worry too much about the toppled cage. I've read online that BST chrysalises that have fallen down from their perches, and ended up just lying horizontal, eclosed perfectly fine. Sounds like they're fairly resilient creatures. (That said, I still have a chrysalis that formed June 13, and it's still just hanging.) I applied some fertilizer (listed as 'starter') with a higher middle/P number to the incarnata early this morning, so let's see if that encourages some blooming. Regardless, monarchs are laying eggs on them, and baby cats are munching the leaves. I'd just like to see some pretty pink flowers. The coneflower seeds I received have already germinated! I'm hoping the plants will get going before long, and I'll give the local hummers yet another reason to visit me. My lone tithonia looks vibrant and is coming along -- I need to give DH constant reminders that it's not a giant dandelion that he should pluck out of the bed. Wondering at what height it will be before it flowers. Usually, by late summer/August, I don't even think about my yard/garden again until next spring. This year, I'm very excited that we have another couple of months of growing season.
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Does Inline blower make sense ?
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Generally, internal blowers that are capable of high flow rates will not be quiet, although they might be tolerable. The issue is turbulence from the fan blades. The closer the turbulence is to the ear, the louder it will sound. When the duct is short, little of that noise will be attenuated if the blower is moved out of the hood into the duct or onto the roof. Also, the air moving through the baffles will make noise due to turbulence, although in my experience (with a Wolf hood made by Independent) the noise is a hiss and easily tolerated. And yes, once you have determined the actual required flow rate (90 CFM per square foot of hood entry aperture recommended) then the rated flow rate of the blower can be estimated or analyzed. If the blower chosen has a large diameter blade design and is run at lower-than-maximum speed, there can be plenty of flow at the pressure loss that results from the flow. I was recommending an up-blast style blower (which would be mounted on a roof pedestal) because such blowers can be tailored to the user's needs. A catalog cover from Greenheck is shown below to clarify what an up-blast blower looks like. (You wouldn't likely need one the size the average restaurant needs.) A company like Greenheck could advise on model selection given a desired flow rate, likely pressure loss (also a factor of MUA design), and the goal of low noise. My only concern is whether there is enough room for a pedestal mount at the edge of your roof. Ultimately, you will need (a) a HVAC person who can provide the estimate of pressure loss and also aid your selection of a solution to providing make-up air, and (b) an intelligent installer who can read and follow directions, and has some skill at adapting installations to the existing architecture. I recommend reading at least the first dozen or so pages of the Greenheck guide: http://www.greenheck.com/media/pdf/otherinfo/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf
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mikie_gw
11 years ago
I aways wonder about sites like that.. are they sitting there and recording your passwords and ip.. doing a little geolocation, so they have a easy target.
DA_Mccoy
11 years ago
This thread reminded me of an extensive article in Consumer Reports. I found part of it and tagged it below. It is not bible and verse, but it is informational.

DA

Here is a link that might be useful: Consumer Reports Jan 2012
not2bright
11 years ago
Thanks for that article, DA.

In line with this thread is this paragraph from the article:

Lower hacking costs. The kind of hardware used to crack passwords has plunged in price. According to Robert Imhoff-Dousharm, information security officer at SanDisk, for $3,000 you can buy a PC with the password-cracking power of the fastest supercomputer in 1994, which cost $30 million then. A PC with that power can be assembled from parts you can buy from a computer retailer, and it can crack any eight-character password in just 23 hours, he says. Have a tighter budget but more time? No problem. An $800 starter version can do it in 40 days.

Ouch.

C:net - Ten Common Sense Security Tips

Comments (5)

mikie_gw

not2bright

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