Passwords

Thanks to my friend Sara Isbell, who sent this email recently to her staff. I thought it was great, so I stole it with her permission :) 

The top 25 worst passwords, in order (and their current rankings compared with the previous year's rankings)

1.  password (unchanged)

2.  123456 (unchanged)

3.  12345678 (unchanged)

4.  abc123 (up 1)

5.  qwerty (down 1)

6.  monkey (unchanged)

7.  letmein (up 1)

8.  dragon (up 2)

9.  111111 (up 3)

10. baseball (up 1)

11. iloveyou (up 2)

12. trustno1 (down 3)

13. 1234567 (down 6)

14. sunshine (up 1)

15. master (down 1)

16. 123123 (up 4)

17. welcome (new)

18. shadow (up 1)

19. ashley (down 3)

20. football (up 5)

21. jesus (new)

22. michael (up 2)

23. ninja  (new)

24. mustang (new)

25. password1 (new)

Spooky stuff.

From: http://www.technewsdaily.com/8391-25-weakest-passwords.html

Most experts agree on the basics of creating strong passwords. Here are some tips from the Identity Theft Resource Center:

• A password should contain at least eight characters (some experts say 10 or 14 characters is the minimum).
• The password should have at least three of the four following types of characters — upper-case letters (ABC), lower-case letters (abc), numerals (123), and punctuation marks or other special characters (!#$%&*_=+? ).
• If you’re using only one capital letter or special character, don’t make it the first or last character in the password.
• Avoid common names, slang words or any words in the dictionary. Computers can run through entire dictionaries in minutes.
• Don’t include any part of your name or any part of your email addresses.
• Choose an especially strong password for websites that hold especially sensitive personal information — for example, banks or online retailers that store your credit-card information.
• Don’t ever refer to anything that can be learned from your social networking profiles or an Internet search. In other words, don’t make it your favorite band or movie, your pet’s name, your nickname, your phone number or, especially, your birth date.

Here’s a good way to create a strong password. Pick a phrase you’ll remember. Take the first letter of each word and run them together into a “word.” Capitalize some letters and substitute numerals where it would make sense to.

For example, the phrase “I hate to work late” could become “iH82wkl8.”

Or tweak that formula and don’t abbreviate all the words. "This little piggy went to market" might become "tlpWENT2m."

From: http://www.technewsdaily.com/2347-how-to-create-remember-super-secure-passwords.html

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ClassBadges.com

Well! A new, fun thing has inspired me to create a new blog entry! There has been a movement, gaining momentum over the last few years, regarding the use of online "badges". A badge is something that you can earn for completing a set of requirements. There is a Mozilla badge project, which is attempting to standardize the use of badges across communities. The great thing about this project, if it works, is that students could earn credit for skills not necessarily taught (or tested) in your average classroom.

Let's say a student is an awesome programmer. That is a pretty marketable skill! One that colleges might be interested in! But how will they know? It isn't covered on a state test. And a programming class in one school might be extremely different than a programming class in another.

That's where badges come in. A student could earn badges for different programming skills he picks up. So he could prove his knowledge level to a potential college. Or a potential employer. Cool stuff. So then comes this cool little site called Classbadges.com. Not affiliated really with the larger badge movement I don't think, but somewhat similar in concept.

Think video games. In a video game, players earn achievements for successes and mastery of skills. These badges would do the same! Teachers can create classes in classbadges.com, and they can create badges for those classes which the students can earn. I love this idea! Check out more about classbadges.com below!

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