"Forgot your password" links the easy way in for hackers

LMAO.... and they're just now bringing peoples attention to it.

I've always answered those questions with stuff that was totally unrelated to the question. If the account is important enough...you write things dwon, or don't forget.

Bill gates has more stuff registered to him, than any other person in the world.

 

You are forgetting other ways hackers have to access your computer also. I am not going to give exact details but you can go into BIOS and if you havent set up a system password you can create a "Guest" account or "Administrator" account to be more accurate. Once this is created you reboot and log into the unprotected administrator account go to account management and delete the password from the other users. Once done you have complete access to the entire system. Not bad for less than 5 minutes of work. And whoah to those of you that use auto complete. I now have your entire life story. No I am not a hacker but did go to college for electronic engineering although I don't do that as my profession, I have been using puters since before IBM came out with its first desktop in 1986. In fact anyone remember the old UNIX mainframes, that was my first puter experience. Anyone else remember Timex Sinclair, Commadore 64, that old radio shack piece even though it slips my mind right now? You know I really wish they would actually make a computer that is safe for the user.

 

TRS-80 or TRaSh 80?

 

Thats it i had forgotten its name i remember the first IBM desktop processor was a 8088. Within a year they came out with the VIC20 chip which greatly improved its speed but it was still slower than a pentium machine. And if it had problems you had to trace out the problem with a voltmeter and osciliscope and rewire them. No way would plug and play work yet, And yes I did buy one of them IBM's when they first came out. As memory serves and mind you I have forgotten bunches, but it came with a cpu speed stock of 30mhz. onboard memory was 64k. It had a DOS based operating system and a 5 1/4 floppy drive and no HDD. The monitor was a VGA and had I think 64 colors. In todays standards doubt anyone would be able to use it much less want to. Owned a Sinclair that was originally $199 then $99 and finally $49 and you used a tape recorder for its storage sold seperately.

 

YUP, I have told people this for YEARS...of course, they don't listen. Simply put, free email accounts are JUNK. Luckily I have my own emails from my sites and there is NO forgot password dealy, LOL. I forget it, I have to go in and change the darn thing. The thing is, like on this site...if you say "forgot password," it will send your password to your email so no one can get it except YOU...unless your email has been hacked, of course. Also, we have NO questions to ask...it either goes to your email or you don't get it. Just don't put down questions that are EASY for others to guess for your email accounts! Any punk kid can figure stuff out like...your maiden name, your high school, your birth town and such! Put something like "when was the last time I farted?" Answer, "for me to know," LMAO...or something stupid that only a genius could guess, haha.

 

rookie trucker;
sorry threw that paper weight away many years ago. Couldn't buy stuff for it was slowwwww and not supported for updates. Still have 1 or 2 old P3's running around but they have been unused for years too. Heck my desktop that I am using now is a AMD quad core 2.4 which translates to a 9.6Ghz machine. Even my kids have machines with clock speeds exceeding 3Ghz. They all have a desktop and a laptop. Most of the desktops they have are still single core but laptops are all duo cores. Just wish I had better internet access. Where I live you have 2 options dial-up that is around 33k or satellite and I tend to exceed my daily fair access so they are constantly limiting my access speed. If you are looking for donations I can let you have P 3's or I also have a DEC Alphaserver think its a model 2200. Just pay shipping. PS no hard drives are being offered.

 

Wise One;
That is true but if someone has access to your computer and it is simple to bypass most peoples integrated security they have access to your email passwords site history. Some peoples credit card info and anything else inputed into the computer. Personally I recommend using supervisor password this protects the "back door" built into vista and xp. Windows 95 and 98 just required you to X out the login screen. You can buy add on security but its mostly only as good as the person using it.
As far as passwords go I reccommend using 1 password for email and not a password containing you name, birthdays, ages, or any common info for you or close family. for example david39, or dave69, or Maria40 would be easy to fiqure out but a password like Z3Q75Rt29w No this is not one of my passwords but is an example of the type I use, would be harder to impossible to guess. Notice combination of lower and capital letters also mixed thru out with numbers. I also use 10 different passwords online. I sort my passwords by the importance of the site to me. For example a site that I use often that I want to keep information private would have a certain password while a site that contains none of my sensitive info and that I might want others to access for me on my behalf would have a simpler password. For example this sites password is a medium security password to me its a simple password but has no bearing on my personal life. I have 2 passwords that my wife knows. 1 that my exboss knew but been changed. 1 that my kids know rest are for my eyes only.
Also I use passwords that I don't have to write down. A book or card in wallet may fall into the wrong hands.
And as Wise one stated forgotten password links are easy for someone who knows much about you to crack. Help there is to pick a question and put in a totally irrelevant answer. Like type of first car, most would enter chevy, ford mustang or something similar. But if you put in an answer like Madaline or red junker or similar just pick something that only you would know. Then anyone who knows you wouldn't guess it. Or name of first teacher you could put something like Playboy or Mr. 69582 or whatever. Point is don't keep it simple, but don't make it something you won't remember either. What happens if you forget it.