This is to prevent someone from quickly changing their password a few times to get past the “has not been used in the previous three password changes” requirement. With the rules as listed in place, you could still do it but it would take you three days before you could get back to password #1.
There are a lot of tools out there trying to do this… but depending on your systems this can be devilishly hard. On my systems 99% everything is tied to the Windows authenitcation. We use tools to synch this with the systems our users are likely to use.
But once you get away from the well traveled paths of Active Directory things get wilder. In addition to Windows I have HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, Tru-64, Linux (RedHat, SuSE, & Debian), FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, OpenVMS, iSeries (AS/400), NonStop, zOS, and a few I’ve forgotten as well. And most of those I have in different versions as well.
And that is just the Operating Systems. Lots of different applications have their own authentication tools. Many allow OS authentication methods some don’t. I have a password database (password protected of course 
) with over a thousand entries just for the use of my sys admin team.
Where you tend to run into these kinds of multiple authentications is in orginziations that are large and or old. That’s where you see lots of mish mashed solutions, some decades old, where everything is running on non-compatable technologies. Take Edward The Head’s example at the FAA. I’m willing to bet that every seperate system he mentioned is on a different piece of technology. I would love to get everything down to single user sign on. But given what I have I don’t forsee that happening within the next 20 years or less.
At this point, I have about 5 different passwords at work for different things.
At one point they were mostly the same. Then their change dates were all different, some I go through two passwords before I change another.
For our newest software, we had to have someone come and install it and OK it on our computers. The Sheriff’s department takes their shit seriously. So, I had to tell their IT guy my password. He told me my password was too complicated. Well…isn’t that the point?
My favorite is the RSA secur id token. I have to have a password to log on to my computer. Then to open this particular software, a password number to enter in addtion to my ever changing pass token number. And more often than not, I have to enter a SECOND token number just in case, you know, I’m trying to get in illegally and maybe will be caught in that minute wait for the number to change.
But…Neville did that…and that’s how Sirius Black got into Gryffindor Tower!!!
(I confess, I usually tend to use the same password for various things…yeah, I know. One time I just picked words of things around me-like a book, the name of a bottle of handcream, etc)
The ones that drive me crazy are the ones that don’t tell you the requirements until you try to supply one: For example:
Computer: Enter new password
Me: A- U- T- Z
Computer: Password must have at least 8 digits
Me: A- U- T- Z- A- U- T- Z
Computer: Password must have at least one number in it
ME: A- U- T- Z- 2- 0- 0- 9
Computer: Password must not end in an odd number or start with an A, G, T, H, J, or S
Me: ???
If they have requirements, they should tell you ahead of time! Grrrr!
Military stuff makes for great passwords (in my cubicle farm)- M1A2Abrams, M1126Stryker, etc.
They’re easy for me to remember, they satisfy the alphanumeric requirements and no one in my office would ever guess them. YMMV, of course.
But…gullible is in the dictionary.
My password requires:
At least 2 Capital Letters
At least 2 lowercase letters
At least 2 special characters like !@#$%
Changed like every 90 or 120 days
8-15 digits long or something like that
can’t repeat with last 10 passwords
Holy crap. I have a set password and then all I change is the letters in the begining. I learned that technique from a poster on this board. Since I need two capitals and two lowercase, I just move down the keyboard every time I need to change it.
So if right now my password is HHhh1234!@, then next month I will change it to JJjj1234!@, then KKkk1234!@. Works great and I can always remember my 15 digit password.
Where is it you work again?
Looks like Symantecs password requirements. That crap was ridiculous.
I do something similar. I just memorize keyboard positions for example - !123qaz]’/
Hey boss why don’t you check your passwords on this web site that rates them for security. I’ve been using it for a year now. Joe over there has his on MySpace so he can look them up whenever he needs to.
You used to live in the President’s Office at General Electric? :o
Try 3ATM3*JrKoFF
I like to use equations that describe my life. One I use a while ago after a breakup was
Me-exgf=hpy09
It meets every password requirement I’ve ever heard of and they are incredibly easy to remember. Right now my pass word is about the coming of spring.
I wasn’t about to give out one I actually use.
I’ve taken to using this for instances where there are particularly aggravating password requirements.
All my passwords these days are kept in a password protected excel file, which is safe enough for me. I went that route when so many different systems had so many different password requirements that it became impossible for me to even keep some general them or semblance from system to system.
But honestly about 7/10 or so of my passwords, even if my worst enemy had them, would give very little that would screw me over in any way. The important stuff is all protected by SecurID so unless I lose my key fob, and they have my login information I feel pretty secure.
i currently have 22 different logons and passwords for various applications at work. many of them have unique requirements, like capital letters or special characters, and most of them must be reset in 30 or 60 days (not all on the same schedule). yes, i do have a list typed out and sitting on my desk. i have no idea how any normal human is expected to have all of this stuff memorized.
Lilacs said:
Now that’s wrong. Either he should have an administrator account so he can install SW, or you should login for him. IT shouldn’t need your password.
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack: