PC Data Security Blog

Passwords: Hard-to-hack equals hard-to-remember

I read today about a new web-based program that can be used to create complex hard-to-hack passwords. These passwords are randomly generated and a sufficient number of uppercase, numerical and special characters. Terrific! Hard-to-hack equals hard-to-remember. And hard-to-remember means these difficult passwords will be written in a notebook, on a sticky note or… who knows. Here’s the point: Reliance on users in large scale for critical security related tasks is just plain dumb. Users/employees should not be relied upon for effective data security.

Security even more of an afterthought today

It is no surprise that security tools remain a secondary purchase amongst IT executives well behind that of productivity tools. This secondary assignment has been exacerbated by economy-inspired belt-tightening. There’s simply no reasonable way to apply ROI a non-event – exactly the outcome we want when a security tool is deployed. Even Google, aggressively moving into applications and host of the Google I/O Developer Conference has seemingly given security short shrift. Our economy has been almost the sole story relative to all things business but I wonder how long it will offer a safe haven excuse for not adequately protecting data; particularly customer, client and patient data?