Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 10

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, ultimately.

Sorry. I may have been a bit to cryptic (or cute). I think the problem with password managers is that they put all your passwords in one place. If the password manager itself is cracked, every password is exposed.

 

[Wudang]

Sorry. I may have been a bit to cryptic (or cute). I think the problem with password managers is that they put all your passwords in one place. If the password manager itself is cracked, every password is exposed.

I use passwordSafe designed by well known security expert Bruce Schneier. It's open source and well checked. My master password is based on a very obscure word as misspelled by me as a child plus a few extras. It has the benefit of allowing me to store unique password rules for each website etc. E.g. 8+ characters, 1 upper, 1 lower, 1 special instead discovering the rules one at a time as I fail to meet them. I'd like to have a chat with people who implement such password checkers.

https://www.schneier.com/academic/passsafe/

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I use passwordSafe designed by well known security expert Bruce Schneier. It's open source and well checked. My master password is based on a very obscure word as misspelled by me as a child plus a few extras. It has the benefit of allowing me to store unique password rules for each website etc. E.g. 8+ characters, 1 upper, 1 lower, 1 special instead discovering the rules one at a time as I fail to meet them. I'd like to have a chat with people who implement such password checkers.

https://www.schneier.com/academic/passsafe/

That actually sounds useful.

There is an elephant in the room of cryptography because Moore's Law still more or less applies. The "bad guys" are currently recording encrypted conversations^*. Not because they can decrypt them now but in the expectation that a computation that would take six weeks now will be doable in 6 seconds in a year or two.

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^* I read this on the Dark Web.

 

[xterra]

I use KeePass (https://keepass.info/)

I just found a recent review of it:

https://cybernews.com/best-password-managers/keepass-review/

 

[catsmate]

That actually sounds useful.

There is an elephant in the room of cryptography because Moore's Law still more or less applies. The "bad guys" are currently recording encrypted conversations^*. Not because they can decrypt them now but in the expectation that a computation that would take six weeks now will be doable in 6 seconds in a year or two.

-----------
^* I read this on the Dark Web.

Moore's law implies that computing power doubles in eighteen months, not by a factor of 600,000 in a year.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Moore's law implies that computing power doubles in eighteen months, not by a factor of 600,000 in a year.

Quantum computing could break Moore's Law to a large degree however and that tech is going to go mainstream sooner rather than later.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Moore's law implies that computing power doubles in eighteen months, not by a factor of 600,000 in a year.

So I used a bit of hyperbole. My apologies.

 

[catsmate]

Quantum computing could break Moore's Law to a large degree however and that tech is going to go mainstream sooner rather than later.

Not in the Real World. The cryptanalytic usefulness of quantum computers is actually fairly limited, and there are enormous technical, practical, and economic problems.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Not in the Real World. The cryptanalytic usefulness of quantum computers is actually fairly limited, and there are enormous technical, practical, and economic problems.

The problem with using quantum computing to decrypt something is you'd get the translation before the original has been written, creating a paradox that would tear a hole in spacetime through which cold spaghetti would pour, endlessly. It's physics!

 

[arthwollipot]

Quantum computing is barely a thing. It's going to be quite a long time before anyone's using them to crack KeePass.

 

[Norman Alexander]

The problem with using quantum computing to decrypt something is you'd get the translation before the original has been written, creating a paradox that would tear a hole in spacetime through which cold spaghetti would pour, endlessly. It's physics!

...Liberty U??

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Quantum computing is barely a thing. It's going to be quite a long time before anyone's using them to crack KeePass.

I'd like to believe you.

IBM may have a solution:

What Is Quantum-Safe Cryptography, and Why Do We Need It?

 

[JoeMorgue]

Dear Users;

The following terms mean nothing and don't get your ticket worked on any faster.

- ASAP or "Rush Job" or "Make Priority" or anything like that. The SLA you pay for determines response time, not the verbiage of the ticket.
- Work stoppage or "needs to do job" or similar.

 

[catsmate]

I'd like to believe you.

IBM may have a solution service to sell:

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Well you won't know until you've paid them a million dollars, will you? 2x

 

[Hellbound]

Well you won't know until you've paid them a million dollars, will you? 2x

Wait, you haven't included the annual fee for the service package...

 

[Norman Alexander]

Well you won't know until you've paid them a million dollars, will you? 2x

Wait, you haven't included the annual fee for the service package...

And you never get to own the product. It's all leased. So when it is over, whooshka! GONE!

 

[Hellbound]

And you never get to own the product. It's all leased. So when it is over, whooshka! GONE!

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_690876361b06d3e750.png[/qimg]

And to figure out your licensing fees, we need to know the type and number of CPUs in your system, the day of the week you made your purchase, the date of birth (Julian calendar) of your 2nd cousin on your Mom's side, Your astrological sign, we multiply that by Planck's Constant and divide by the sound level (in decibels) of one hand clapping...then we can move on to part 2.

 

[Norman Alexander]

And to figure out your licensing fees, we need to know the type and number of CPUs in your system, the day of the week you made your purchase, the date of birth (Julian calendar) of your 2nd cousin on your Mom's side, Your astrological sign, we multiply that by Planck's Constant and divide by the sound level (in decibels) of one hand clapping...then we can move on to part 2.

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Except for the tiny-print bit at the bottom that is key to the document.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.


Except for the tiny-print bit at the bottom that is key to the document.

But the salesman told me something different.