The Cuckoo's Egg

If you want to catch a bad guy, keep detailed notes and, by all means, don't let him catch you. These were words to live by for Cliff Stoll, author of the The Cuckoo's Egg, a novel-like nonfiction story about his hunt for a computer hacker. While an interesting life story, Stoll's experience brought into the lime light an interesting problem of the growing technological world of the late 20th century. Cyber security. Specifically, password security.

In order to be useful, computers need to come equipped with preregistered accounts and passwords. When they first log on, consumers should override these passwords or delete the accounts. In The Cuckoo's Egg,  many organizations didn't bother, which left their computers open to the hacker to come and go as he pleased. These computers, in turn, were connected to other susceptible computers through various networks. As result, the hacker could access thousands of computers around the world. He could then access personal accounts by matching words from an encrypted dictionary to encrypted passwords in the  password file. Because many people used normal words since they're easy to remember, their computer was now open to the hacker. If measures had been taken to enforce good passwords for all accounts, the networks would've been more secure.

This reiterates what has become increasingly important today: password strength. There are analyzers out there that will evaluate the strength of your password. So remember, if you don't want to give hacker's easy access to your network and/or computer, choose good passwords. Don't use your dog's name. Don't use your name. For heaven's sake, don't use the account name. Instead, choose something funky and throw in a couple numbers. You could even randomly generate a string of numbers and letters. Having a strong password isn't difficult or time consuming but it will make your cyber life more secure.