Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:12619 news.sysadmin:1587
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,news.sysadmin
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Worm/Passwords
Message-ID: <1988Nov19.235648.29923@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <22401@cornell.UUCP> <4627@rayssd.ray.com> <251@ispi.UUCP> <4668@mtgzz.att.com> <22624@beta.lanl.gov>
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 88 23:56:48 GMT

In article <22624@beta.lanl.gov> ttp@beta.lanl.gov (T T Phillips) writes:
>> And after you generate this random "pasword", no human user will be able
>> to remember it. And so your users will write the "passwords" down, paste
>> them on their terminals, ...etc.
>
>... here at Los Alamos, we are given what seem to be random
>passwords annually.  You must protect your password as you do
>your badge.  My observation is that the engineers, scientists,
>secretaries and managers seem to be able to cope with the random
>passwords without significant problems.

This is unquestionably true when the environment is such that users can
be *ordered* to protect their passwords properly, with serious penalties
for violating such orders.  It doesn't work so well in looser environments.
-- 
Sendmail is a bug,             |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
not a feature.                 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu