re: Win 2000 User Manager Pro

["Chris Berry" <compjma () hotmail com>]

> From: H C <keydet89 () yahoo com>
> > They claim that its easy to break into admin
> > password
> > and that if all your Win2000 machines have the same
> > admin pw the hacker gets access locally to all
> > machines...

I use semi-unique passwords on all my boxes for the local admin password.  
Basically just create a decent password then append something to it 
(preferably something that is easy for you to find out, but not for anyone 
else, the serial number for example.)  So if your standard password were 
XL82~jn and the serial number of the box was 76543C, the the local admin 
password for that box would be XL82~jn_76543C, and if you had another box 
with serial number 87344T its local admin password would be XL82~jn_87344T.  
This makes it much more difficult to crack multiple passwords at once.  Even 
if they manage to crack one, they'd have to figure out your scheme, and 
somehow get a list of serial numbers (which you might want to keep encrypted 
if you have one on your computer) to do them any good.  At the same time, 
you only have to memorize a very small password to get decent local admin 
security, and if you use PasswordSafe from www.counterpane.com you can even 
forget that until you need it.

Chris Berry
compjma () hotmail com
Systems Administrator
JM Associates

"Live dangerously, overclock your servers."

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