Not a frighteningly new topic, but the Daily Mail reports on just how unsecure your accounts really are.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2331984/Think-strong-password-Hackers-crack-16-character-passwords-hour.html. 

A few months back I read a piece on this subject over at Lifehacker.  Again even then it wasn’t really that surprising to me as to the efficacy of our passwords.  It makes me laugh reading this that we even have passwords given how easy it is to get the information.

Many sites especially Government sites are notorious for changing password requirements all the time.  Some sites went from having an update when you want to update every six months to update every threee months…

Other sites such as banks have updated their requirements so you cannot reuse the same password, or even up to the last 15 passwords.

Of course when it comes to passwords simple dictionary words are horrible and even substituting a symbol or number for a letter just won’t cut it for a brute force attack.  You are better off using something like this suggestion from XKCD http://xkcd.com/936/.

For the lazy there are other methods like a smart spreadsheet.  Excel or even my favorite Libre Office allow you to create random numbers for a cell.  These random numbers can then be generated to recall a letter a number or a symbol from elsewhere in the spreadsheet. apparently documents can’t be shared on blogger, I will have to find a way share a sample one a created. In the meantime contact me if you wasn’t an easy sample card.

Update:  Try this google doc

-BrotherLeRoy

Over at Military Times they have a running project with the names of all identified as KIA for our Afghan and Iraq Campaigns.  to date 6679 Soldiers/Sailors/Marines/Airmen have given their lives honorably.  Take time today to honor and remember them.

-Patrick

I have been threatening to dump Facebook for a long time.  Not their stock, though I dumped that a while ago as well, I’m talking Facebook Social Networking.  This week, just two days ago I did just that.  I didn’t do it because I was addicted to Social Media, don’t get me wrong I am totally addicted to social media (If I wasn’t would I be posting on a platform for everybody to read?).

I did it for ease and integration.  I write on a Mac, but I make fun of the Macolytes who walk around in the Cult of Mac superiority.  Personally I run Ubuntu Linux on my Mac, I keep OSX on a separate partition only so that I can assist my mother with her computer when issues arise (and they do).  Those people who have to have their Iphone, and their Ipod, and there Mac they in some ways have a good idea going.

Google did the same thing but on a software scale not on hardware.  I applaud them for this.  Just as every “I” product works practically seamlessly together the same is true for Google’s many services.  I have a Google account, a youtube account, a Google drive account, a gmail account, a Google plus account and of course a Blogger account, they all sync up perfectly.  I happen to have and Android phone, again a Google product.  As it happens these all sync quite beautifully.

This integration alone is far better than what I had going on over at facebook.  Google Plus is more secure, you have more ways of controlling exactly what anybody sees on Google Plus than in Facebook.  You have full control of almost every aspect of your security.  You can even share your photo albums with non Google Users without making them fully public, you can’t do that with Facebook.

One thing that was constantly frustrating me over at Facebook was their horrible rewriting and changing of their security settings.  Not only did they not care, but they would for the longest time reset your settings to the most lenient possible.  All the information on a social network can be used to profile you and steal your identity but Facebook didn’t care.

Google’s approach is a bit different.  Yes Google shares your personal information in terms of sites visited,  what your interests are… but they do it differently.  They mask you, they allow you to show others what information you want.  Google’s robots pick up information but they don’t target you, they target a profile that looks like you so they can better advertise and make money.  They are smart about it and well they are better at it than the competition.

Now I haven’t ditched my twitter/pinterest account yet, but this is only because some of the media outlets I’m attached to haven’t made the switch.  As they begin to I’ll be ready.  I’m already on Google full force and I don’t intend to leave there for some time.

-BrotherLeRoy

Memorial Day 2013

Today we honor those Service Members who have died.  During my last deployment, our Battalion lost 2 Soldiers, my current Battalion lost even more.

Soldiers/Sailors/Marines/Airmen, they join the military knowing full well they could die.  They put their lives on the line for our freedom.  Some do it for benefits, some do it for money, but far more do it for God and Country, all of them do it because they believe in something.

While ordinarily we would celebrate those who died and remember those Service Members who sacrificed their lives.  Those who were savagely blown up in my current unit I never met.  In my old Battalion I knew one of the two, and I only knew him in passing, yet the impact of their sacrifice stays with still.

I remember the day it happened, it was just over two years ago.  I remember getting called into our Combined Division Operations Center and reading the reports.  The initial reports were more than grim, then seeing photos of the terror attack, they made me cringe.  That day transformed our deployment.  We renamed our classroom for one of the fallen Soldiers, we renamed our conference room for the other.  Last year, after Iraq had closed down and we were fully home at Fort Riley we rededicated our home station classroom and held a second memorial service.

Our actions were not enough.  But they were what we could do.  Today go thank someone in the Armed Forces.  Thank the families of those serving, those families give us the strength to go out and put our lives on the line.  Those spouses, and children, they often entered into the relationship after a Service Member was already joined be it born or married after service was initiated.  Family are the real heroes here.  They tolerate longer than normal hours, they find ways to cope with months of separation at a time.  They have to pick up the pieces when one of us doesn’t make it home.

So if you see my wife, my children, or even my ex-wife, thank them.  Don’t thank me, I joined because it was the noble thing to do.  I did it to make the world safer, to make this country greater, I joined because I wanted to preserve our rights for the next generation.  My ex-wife, she let me join after we were already married, and my current wife well she married me knowing full well what it meant to be in the Service.  They made the sacrifices, I just did what needed to be done.

For the families of SFC Beattie, and PFC Mora, we haven’t forgotten their sacrafice, nor have we forgotten your loss.  Thank you for your sacrifce and know that you are in the thoughts and prayers of thousands of people this day two years later. http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2011/05/1-63-armor-honors-sfc-clifford-beattie-pfc-ramon-mora-jr.html

Memorial Day 2013

Today we honor those Service Members who have died.  During my last deployment, our Battalion lost 2 Soldiers, my current Battalion lost even more.

Soldiers/Sailors/Marines/Airmen, they join the military knowing full well they could die.  They put their lives on the line for our freedom.  Some do it for benefits, some do it for money, but far more do it for God and Country, all of them do it because they believe in something.

While ordinarily we would celebrate those who died and remember those Service Members who sacrificed their lives.  Those who were savagely blown up in my current unit I never met.  In my old Battalion I knew one of the two, and I only knew him in passing, yet the impact of their sacrifice stays with still.

I remember the day it happened, it was just over two years ago.  I remember getting called into our Combined Division Operations Center and reading the reports.  The initial reports were more than grim, then seeing photos of the terror attack, they made me cringe.  That day transformed our deployment.  We renamed our classroom for one of the fallen Soldiers, we renamed our conference room for the other.  Last year, after Iraq had closed down and we were fully home at Fort Riley we rededicated our home station classroom and held a second memorial service.

Our actions were not enough.  But they were what we could do.  Today go thank someone in the Armed Forces.  Thank the families of those serving, those families give us the strength to go out and put our lives on the line.  Those spouses, and children, they often entered into the relationship after a Service Member was already joined be it born or married after service was initiated.  Family are the real heroes here.  They tolerate longer than normal hours, they find ways to cope with months of separation at a time.  They have to pick up the pieces when one of us doesn’t make it home.

So if you see my wife, my children, or even my ex-wife, thank them.  Don’t thank me, I joined because it was the noble thing to do.  I did it to make the world safer, to make this country greater, I joined because I wanted to preserve our rights for the next generation.  My ex-wife, she let me join after we were already married, and my current wife well she married me knowing full well what it meant to be in the Service.  They made the sacrifices, I just did what needed to be done.

For the families of SFC Beattie, and PFC Mora, we haven’t forgotten their sacrafice, nor have we forgotten your loss.  Thank you for your sacrifce and know that you are in the thoughts and prayers of thousands of people this day two years later. http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2011/05/1-63-armor-honors-sfc-clifford-beattie-pfc-ramon-mora-jr.html