473,323 Members | 1,550 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
Post Job

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Join Bytes to post your question to a community of 473,323 software developers and data experts.

OT. Funny story about passwords. I wonder how many people do this

The other day my friends were on the web ready to purchase some tickets
on-line for a concert. There was a textbox to enter their e-mail
address and another to enter a password. So they entered their e-mail
address and promptly entered their password to their Yahoo email account
and submitted it.

The web server fortunately kicked it out and said "Invalid Email
Account". They had done this several times so they asked me for help.
I asked them if they were entering the password to their Yahoo account
and they looked up at me blankly and said "Yes". I told them not to do
that...to give a unique password for that page.

Even when they did that, the server kicked them out. So I told them to
try and use their real e-mail address but NOT supply the password to
their primary account.

That worked. For this server, it did not want a YAHOO email account, it
wanted their real account which was on Comcast. I remember when a
soldier died in Iraq and the parents wanted the e-mails his son had sent
for memory purposes. Yahoo refused. It was taken up to court and Yahoo
won. If you want someone to have access to your Yahoo account after you
die, you have to give that person your password prior to passing on.

I also found it strange that YAHOO was not considered a valid e-mail
account. Who cares where the e-mail was sent to for confirmation to a
concert?

Anyway, I'm wondering how many people enter their email address and
their email passwords for their account into strange web pages? Quite a
few, I'd bet. If someone has access to this info, I bet he/she could
disrupt a lot of accounts.
Nov 15 '05 #1
9 3089
Salad wrote:
I also found it strange that YAHOO was not considered a valid e-mail
account. Who cares where the e-mail was sent to for confirmation to a
concert?


A lot of systems don't accept Yahoo or hotmail addresses on the basis
that they're too anonymous and also accounts get disabled through lack
of use, sometimes not able to reactivate it.
Nov 15 '05 #2
Salad <oi*@vinegar.com> wrote:
Anyway, I'm wondering how many people enter their email address and
their email passwords for their account into strange web pages? Quite a
few, I'd bet. If someone has access to this info, I bet he/she could
disrupt a lot of accounts.


Ayup. Every one of my accounts has a different password. But I also use the
Microsoft Fingerprint scanner to help the process. Not only can you use it to log
into your own system you can use it to store your account name and password on
websites.

Many years ago, early '90s before the Internet was available a bunch of us were
running BBSs in the area. Each of the sysops had, of course, logged into the other
BBSs. A friend, who also ran a BBS, decided to test things and sure enough all the
sysops used the same password on their own BBS as well as the other BBSs in town. So
now my friend had sysop privileges on all the other BBSs.

Except for him and me. <smile> We both used different passwords.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Nov 15 '05 #3
Tony Toews wrote:
Salad <oi*@vinegar.com> wrote:

Anyway, I'm wondering how many people enter their email address and
their email passwords for their account into strange web pages? Quite a
few, I'd bet. If someone has access to this info, I bet he/she could
disrupt a lot of accounts.

Ayup. Every one of my accounts has a different password. But I also use the
Microsoft Fingerprint scanner to help the process. Not only can you use it to log
into your own system you can use it to store your account name and password on
websites.


MS Fingerprint scanner? That's a new one on me. I've wondered why
keyboards don't come with a credit card scanner/reader where if I were
purchasing something over the web I simply swipe my card. Your method
would be very secure.
Many years ago, early '90s before the Internet was available a bunch of us were
running BBSs in the area. Each of the sysops had, of course, logged into the other
BBSs. A friend, who also ran a BBS, decided to test things and sure enough all the
sysops used the same password on their own BBS as well as the other BBSs in town. So
now my friend had sysop privileges on all the other BBSs.

Except for him and me. <smile> We both used different passwords.
Funny story or yours...and smart. Just curious, what bbs software were
you using? I was a fanatic for Jack Rickard's Boardwatch back in the
80s early 90s. He pushed TBBS quite a bit but PC-Board seemed to be
more user friendly. The web killed the BBS. If I were to incorporate a
BBS in a web now, I'd go phpBB.

Tony

Nov 15 '05 #4
> Funny story or yours...and smart. Just curious, what bbs software were
you using? I was a fanatic for Jack Rickard's Boardwatch back in the 80s
early 90s. He pushed TBBS quite a bit but PC-Board seemed to be more user
friendly. The web killed the BBS.

Another funny story: I started a TBBS BBS just as the first web sites were
getting up and running ...
--
Darryl Kerkeslager
Nov 15 '05 #5
Darryl Kerkeslager wrote:
Funny story or yours...and smart. Just curious, what bbs software were
you using? I was a fanatic for Jack Rickard's Boardwatch back in the 80s
early 90s. He pushed TBBS quite a bit but PC-Board seemed to be more user
friendly. The web killed the BBS.


Another funny story: I started a TBBS BBS just as the first web sites were
getting up and running ...

I can imagine you thinking of all the hard work you put into it and then
saying "Ahhhh sh*t".
Nov 16 '05 #6
Salad <oi*@vinegar.com> wrote:
Ayup. Every one of my accounts has a different password. But I also use the
Microsoft Fingerprint scanner to help the process. Not only can you use it to log
into your own system you can use it to store your account name and password on
websites.
MS Fingerprint scanner? That's a new one on me. I've wondered why
keyboards don't come with a credit card scanner/reader where if I were
purchasing something over the web I simply swipe my card. Your method
would be very secure.


Well, maybe. Given that North American credit cards, for the most part, only have a
magnetic stripe thats very easy to counterfeit. The smart cards are more difficult
of course.
Many years ago, early '90s before the Internet was available a bunch of us were
running BBSs in the area. Each of the sysops had, of course, logged into the other
BBSs. A friend, who also ran a BBS, decided to test things and sure enough all the
sysops used the same password on their own BBS as well as the other BBSs in town. So
now my friend had sysop privileges on all the other BBSs.

Except for him and me. <smile> We both used different passwords.


Funny story or yours...and smart. Just curious, what bbs software were
you using? I was a fanatic for Jack Rickard's Boardwatch back in the
80s early 90s. He pushed TBBS quite a bit but PC-Board seemed to be
more user friendly.


I was using Maximus. As much as anything because a few others in my area were also
using it and it was Canadian.
The web killed the BBS.


It sure did. The lengths we went to to make long distance phone calls at the
cheapest time of the night was incredible.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Nov 16 '05 #7
It had 4 letters, yes.

--
Darryl Kerkeslager
Nov 16 '05 #8
Tony Toews wrote:
Salad <oi*@vinegar.com> wrote:

Ayup. Every one of my accounts has a different password. But I also use the
Microsoft Fingerprint scanner to help the process. Not only can you use it to log
into your own system you can use it to store your account name and password on
websites.
MS Fingerprint scanner? That's a new one on me. I've wondered why
keyboards don't come with a credit card scanner/reader where if I were
purchasing something over the web I simply swipe my card. Your method
would be very secure.

Well, maybe. Given that North American credit cards, for the most part, only have a
magnetic stripe thats very easy to counterfeit. The smart cards are more difficult
of course.


I remember a movie where a couple of kids had some listening machine and
they hung out near ATM machines and recorded the beeps and what not and
saved the info to cards and then went back and cleaned out peoples
accounts. I guess there are enough people technically savvy enough to
counterfit credit cards. Then again, I've heard of folks that pull up
to the ATM machine, hook a cord somehow to the ATM and simply yank it
out of the wall and continue on.

I haven't had any experience with smart cards yet...that I know of.
Many years ago, early '90s before the Internet was available a bunch of us were
running BBSs in the area. Each of the sysops had, of course, logged into the other
BBSs. A friend, who also ran a BBS, decided to test things and sure enough all the
sysops used the same password on their own BBS as well as the other BBSs in town. So
now my friend had sysop privileges on all the other BBSs.

Except for him and me. <smile> We both used different passwords.


Funny story or yours...and smart. Just curious, what bbs software were
you using? I was a fanatic for Jack Rickard's Boardwatch back in the
80s early 90s. He pushed TBBS quite a bit but PC-Board seemed to be
more user friendly.

I was using Maximus. As much as anything because a few others in my area were also
using it and it was Canadian.


I'm not familiear with it.
The web killed the BBS.

It sure did. The lengths we went to to make long distance phone calls at the
cheapest time of the night was incredible.


It seems so long ago. I used to think the sound of a modem connecting
was one of the sexiest sounds around. :-)

Tony

Nov 16 '05 #9
Salad wrote:
I remember a movie where a couple of kids had some listening machine and
they hung out near ATM machines and recorded the beeps and what not and
saved the info to cards and then went back and cleaned out peoples
accounts. I guess there are enough people technically savvy enough to
counterfit credit cards. Then again, I've heard of folks that pull up
to the ATM machine, hook a cord somehow to the ATM and simply yank it
out of the wall and continue on.


In my town they put a false front onto the ATM.
Nov 16 '05 #10

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

1
by: eScrewDotCom | last post by:
eScrew Welcome to eScrew! eScrew is eScrew and this is eScrew story. eScrew will tell you eScrew story if you promise eScrew to consider eScrew story as joke. eScrew story is very funny. eScrew...
8
by: eScrewDotCom | last post by:
eScrew Welcome to eScrew! eScrew is eScrew and this is eScrew story. eScrew will tell you eScrew story if you promise eScrew to consider eScrew story as joke. eScrew story is very funny. eScrew...
92
by: Reed L. O'Brien | last post by:
I see rotor was removed for 2.4 and the docs say use an AES module provided separately... Is there a standard module that works alike or an AES module that works alike but with better encryption?...
5
by: eScrewDotCom | last post by:
www.eScrew.com eScrew Welcome to eScrew! eScrew is eScrew and this is eScrew story. eScrew will tell you eScrew story if you promise eScrew to consider eScrew story as joke. eScrew story is...
8
by: MarsFossils | last post by:
I am giving a lunch and learn talk on how to "Create your own Web Page" tomorrow and would like to mention a funny anecdote with an inspiring moral about web page design. Does anybody have any...
0
by: eScrewDotCom | last post by:
eScrew Welcome to eScrew! eScrew is eScrew and this is eScrew story. eScrew will tell you eScrew story if you promise eScrew to consider eScrew story as joke. eScrew story is very funny. eScrew...
0
by: mycoffe13 | last post by:
REAL STORY of USA…… HEY friend’s please read this...this is a real story happened Recently for a Student in AMERICA....one guy was studying his under graduation in one of american...
0
by: mycoffe13 | last post by:
REAL STORY of USA…… HEY friend’s please read this...this is a real story happened Recently for a Student in AMERICA....one guy was studying his under graduation in one of american...
0
by: DolphinDB | last post by:
Tired of spending countless mintues downsampling your data? Look no further! In this article, you’ll learn how to efficiently downsample 6.48 billion high-frequency records to 61 million...
0
by: ryjfgjl | last post by:
ExcelToDatabase: batch import excel into database automatically...
0
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 6 Mar 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC) and finishing at about 19:15 (7.15PM). In this month's session, we are pleased to welcome back...
1
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 6 Mar 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC) and finishing at about 19:15 (7.15PM). In this month's session, we are pleased to welcome back...
0
by: Vimpel783 | last post by:
Hello! Guys, I found this code on the Internet, but I need to modify it a little. It works well, the problem is this: Data is sent from only one cell, in this case B5, but it is necessary that data...
1
by: CloudSolutions | last post by:
Introduction: For many beginners and individual users, requiring a credit card and email registration may pose a barrier when starting to use cloud servers. However, some cloud server providers now...
1
by: Defcon1945 | last post by:
I'm trying to learn Python using Pycharm but import shutil doesn't work
1
by: Shællîpôpï 09 | last post by:
If u are using a keypad phone, how do u turn on JavaScript, to access features like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram....
0
by: Faith0G | last post by:
I am starting a new it consulting business and it's been a while since I setup a new website. Is wordpress still the best web based software for hosting a 5 page website? The webpages will be...

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.