Why bother with a strong password on your computer?

How many of you have a pasword on your laptop?

I’m betting most of you do. Is it a strong password?

Now if you’re using a Mac I think all this doesn’t really apply to you, I think you might have better security than I do on Vista.

So today a friend called me. She had forgotten her password to her laptop. She had been proud of the uber cool, super strong pasword she figured out.

Well now she had a boat anchor. Well so she thought or feared.

Armed with google I found several options for, essentially, breaking in and resetting her password.

Once she had the CD burned it took all of about 10 mins to crack in. That included booting into safe mode twice to clear stuff out.

If we didn’t need to do that, 3-5 mins tops.

I told her, this is why I have a okay pasword on my machine, but not super strong.

My password is enough to keep the causal snoopre at bay, but I figure that if someone really wants in, well it won’t take much effort.

Heck after today’s thing I have a bootable USB drive with the tools and a copy of the CD image as well.

Just part of my kit now.

Yes, this goes against a lot of what security people tell us, however like I said, if someone wants in, they’ll get in.

The trick is to prevent the casual person at bay.

Gives you a whole new perspective doesn’t it?