RichardsIT.com

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_06/b4214036460585.htm

Businessweek has some interesting info on passwords.

This updates my previous notes on passwords here:

http://www.richardsit.com/rit/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:very-soon-seven-digit-passwords-wont-be-good-enough&catid=39:tech-advice&Itemid=74

Please go immediately to this link to check your HP, Apple, and Dell laptops against the listed criteria and take any listed steps. This is the list of notebooks affected by the settlement over the defective Nvidia graphics chips that can literally explode.

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/affectedmodels.html

Outlook has a new tool, the Outlook Social Connector. It's main purpose is to scour social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace looking for feed info on the persons listed in the email. It's second purpose, and this is the important one, is to scour your indexed outlook items and display them in the OSC box below the email preview, in an open email, or in an open contacts form.

Outlook Gets Social

The social network scouring tool is pretty neat, and can even be useful. It will find whatever info you have permission for on people that email you. This usually means that you can at least see their picture, and sometimes you can see a lot of stuff if they aren't really proficient at setting their FaceBook or other site privacy settings. The obvious warning here is check your damn privacy settings! I and an army of experts say that constantly, but it's clear that a lot of you don't do it. Also, be aware that certain things like your profile pic on FB are ALWAYS public and if you send business email using the account you signed up for Facebook with, chances are your business contacts using Outlook 2010 have already seen your profile pic of you chugging beer at the club.The upside is that if you are a single business person, you'll now know which of your anonymous business contacts are in need of being extra nice to.

Updating our info on password security from here: All About Passwords - What to Do and Not Do

It seems that very soon, thanks to gpu processor power, mixed seven digit passwords won't be good enough. It's going to take at least 12 to stop brute force attacks. Unfortunately, a lot of web sites won't even take a 12 digit password.

However, on your lan, a very important thing to do is have a server set with account lockout policies for too many retries. Aside from having a strong password, that is your best defense.

Info on the 12 digit password issue:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/16/password_security_analysis/