Users still make hacking easy with weak passwords

By Jaikumar Vijayan
Computerworld
January 21, 2010

In a report likely to make IT administrators tear out their hair, most users still rely on easy passwords, some as simple as "123456," to access their accounts.

A report released today by database security vendor Imperva Inc. serves as another reminder of why IT administrators need to enforce strong password policies on enterprise applications and systems.

Imperva's report is based on an analysis of 32 million passwords that were exposed in a recent database intrusion at RockYou Inc., a developer of several popular Facebook applications. The passwords, which belonged to users who had registered with RockYou, had been stored by the company in clear text on the compromised database. The hacker responsible for the intrusion later posted the entire list of 32 million passwords on the Internet.

An analysis of that list provides the latest confirmation that a majority of users still don't care about the strength of their passwords if they are left to choose them on their own.

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