The totally off-topic thread

[Simo]

Gotta love the motel cleaners, once I went out for some early morning breakfast and the cleaner saw me walking out so she cleaned the entire room, I hadn't had my morning shower or even had my morning coffee so they didn't replenish the milk then when i needed more milk I had to ring reception and it took ages to get more milk.

 

[Simo]

At work, we have a history of the last 20. Due to security, we have to have at least one number. I've fiund it easier to have one or two numbers, and just increment one of them each cycle that I have to update the passwd.

Tried that but too close to the last password i used.

I can not use the same one ever again...

 

[medhead]

My password tip - car number plate with a 2 or 3 digit numerical add on. Solves all password problems and easy to remember. ie 123xyz12, 123xyz13 etc.

 

[LiamR]

Am I a bad IT geek for putting my password in my Phone?

They change so often I'm afraid I'll forget it.

My password tip - car number plate with a 2 or 3 digit numerical add on. Solves all password problems and easy to remember. ie 123xyz12, 123xyz13 etc.

Well that made your AFF account so much easier to hack.

 

[Katie]

Tried that but too close to the last password i used.
I can not use the same one ever again...

That sucks. I was so glad when I realised this trick with our system. I have just had to go toa 9th char when my laptop was reimaged, but that was OK with the couple of numbers I have.

I used to use airports and dates woth randomish capitals ,e.g. BnesIn27, but that ended up getting confusing. I couldn't remember what I had and hadn't used and I didn't fly enough to new places to be able to rework the characters.

Am I a bad IT geek for putting my password in my Phone?

They change so often I'm afraid I'll forget it.

Well, hopefully it's within a password protected app (& backed up, of course). We had a very stressy 24hrs in New Orleans 11yrs ago when Mr Katie left his PDA in a taxi & it has all his work & eTrade, etc, account details in it, unsecured. Got it back from what he thought was the same taxi driver the next day. I've been threatening to get him a man bag ever since.

 

[medhead]

Well that made your AFF account so much easier to hack.

You know one of my car number plates from the last 20 years? BTW I didn't use a number plate for AFF, but if you get it you can also hack my whirlpool account

 

[anat0l]

My passwords don't fit any guessing system, but I do use some passwords for more than one purpose.

The main criteria for me is that a password must be typed as quickly as possible. My typing speed is 60 wpm at best; not fast, but usually fast enough. The worst part of having an exotic password full of non-alphanumeric characters, case sensitivity and what not is that it significantly slows down the password entry process, which is perfect for when you're trying to work in a non-private environment.

The new UQ password strength-o-meter is quite meticulous. It will essentially ban any password that even contains a wholly continuous word that can be found in a dictionary.

If you want to have some fun, here's the URL for the UQ password change page: https://www.uq.edu.au/password/

You can enter a password in the 'new password' field and see what 'score' the password strength-o-meter gives you. Our passwords needed to be at least 'Medium' to be acceptable.

 

[notzac]

Requiring complex passwords just means that the password that ends up being chosen is difficult for a human to remember and easy for a computer to guess: xkcd: Password Strength

If you want actual, real security - you need to use regular passwords with a second factor of some sort (certificate, token, biometrics etc) *gets off soap box*

 

[medhead]

Yeap I was rope-able when NAB removed the ability to easily lock and unlock my internet banking password over the phone.

 

[anat0l]

Requiring complex passwords just means that the password that ends up being chosen is difficult for a human to remember and easy for a computer to guess: xkcd: Password Strength

I always thought about that xkcd comic, but then I thought, unless you can template lots of the first kinds of passwords, then the entropy is just as good as the second kind.

Even if you were able to 'catalogue' the "templates" that people could use so that you can test several discrete subsets of passwords that have less entropy, once you multiply the size of the "catalogue" by the constituent entropies, have you saved anything compared to the second kinds of passwords?

I think the most common attacks are assumed to be dictionary, followed by brute search.

If you want actual, real security - you need to use regular passwords with a second factor of some sort (certificate, token, biometrics etc) *gets off soap box*

That's real security as it can be, though wouldn't it also depend on how the second set of authentication data is stored? For example, how is the biometric verification data stored, and why can't that data be beaten through injection?

 

[cove]

My password test came out as Medium strength so that got me thinking.

 

[Nigelinoz]

More proof,if it was needed,that the media is weird.(well I can't think of another word to use)
Today News.com has a story on it's website about the Commonwealth Bank -

THE Commonwealth Bank is celebrating its home-loan selling success with a "pirate party", days after raising interest rates on customers to protect mega-profits.

​

Commonwealth Bank reveals itself as a bunch of pirates | News.com.au
Yet there is a pop up ad,and a static ad on the right of the page for.........you guessed it The Commonwealth Bank !
Beats me.

​

Cheers
N'oz

 

[Mal]

More proof,if it was needed,that the media is weird.(well I can't think of another word to use)
Today News.com has a story on it's website about the Commonwealth Bank -

Typical media beat-up. Wow, Bad Banks. How nasty they are. Look at them partying. (I wonder why I even bother reading the news - it's just rubbish and poor reporting).
Of worse form (IMHO) is their current use of Facebook photos of a suicide victim and his ex-wife. The media has no sympathy or concern to anyone. Oh, and if that's not enough sleaziness, let's highlight that the father/mother of murder victims partook in swinging.

Again, all of this is rubbish sleazy reporting.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Just saw an ad for A Current Affair tonight (Wed 22 Feb) & looks like the story featured 'Pensioner Travel Scam' could be about the travel agent featured in this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....l-news/ouch-hope-you-had-insurance-36537.html

If it is, I really hope in this instance the victims will be helped by media intervention in that Trvel Scene/American Express come to the party and honour the funds clients paid to this agent as so far all they've done is wash their hands of it saying it's a franchise office ie the old 'all care, no responsibility' line.

The NT Govt also needs to get in line with the rest of Australia & make it law that all Travel Agents in the NT need to be a member of the Travel Compensation Fund so this kind of thing can never happen again.

 

[Mal]

Just saw an ad for A Current Affair tonight (Wed 22 Feb) & looks like the story featured 'Pensioner Travel Scam' could be about the travel agent featured in this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....l-news/ouch-hope-you-had-insurance-36537.html

If it is, I really hope in this instance the victims will be helped by media intervention in that Trvel Scene/American Express come to the party and honour the funds clients paid to this agent as so far all they've done is wash their hands of it saying it's a franchise office ie the old 'all care, no responsibility' line.

The NT Govt also needs to get in line with the rest of Australia & make it law that all Travel Agents in the NT need to be a member of the Travel Compensation Fund so this kind of thing can never happen again.

Indeed. It's their name that is being damaged. I can't believe they have wiped their hands of the issue...

(BTW, Flight Centre is booking a $1 million loss on the administration of Air Australia, does anyone have any thoughts as to what that figure is? Ex-grata payments to some clients?, Unless of course it's their loss from not getting their 5+% commission ... )

 

[markis10]

More proof,if it was needed,that the media is weird.(well I can't think of another word to use)
Today News.com has a story on it's website about the Commonwealth Bank -

Commonwealth Bank reveals itself as a bunch of pirates | News.com.au
Yet there is a pop up ad,and a static ad on the right of the page for.........you guessed it The Commonwealth Bank !
Beats me.

​

Cheers
N'oz

I used this example of poor advertising strategies in a recent security talk:

 

[samh004]

At work, we have a history of the last 20. Due to security, we have to have at least one number. I've fiund it easier to have one or two numbers, and just increment one of them each cycle that I have to update the passwd.

Makes sense, but the system doesn’t help me by requiring me to constantly remember a new password, if anything it’s setting me up to fail so if I ever work in a place with something like that again, I might be having a chat to IT

 

[Ewing]

I was sitting at a Japanese restaurant last night about 500m from my house in Glebe, when I overheard a child no older than about 8 years old complain to his mother about an upcoming trip.

I nearly couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth:

"Why can't we fly Qantas business? I don't want to fly Jetstar business it's too much like premium economy!"

At that age I was ecstatic just being able to fly somewhere.

 

[samh004]

I was sitting at a Japanese restaurant last night about 500m from my house in Glebe, when I overhead a child no older than about 8 years old complain to his mother about an upcoming trip.

I nearly couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth:

"Why can't we fly Qantas business? I don't want to fly Jetstar business it's too much like premium economy!"

At that age I was ecstatic just being able to fly somewhere.

I wonder if the parents are on this board and if they’ll own up

 

[Nigelinoz]

At that age I was ecstatic just being able to fly somewhere.

Some of us still are and premium economy-well chance would be a fine thing.
Cheers
N'oz