IP: DoE password policy comic relief?

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 06:48:32 -0500
> From: Mike <John.Michael.Williams () Computer org>
> Subject: DoE password policy comic relief?
>
>   [The] DOE security "czar" ... said it is now virtually impossible for
>   employees to transfer nuclear secrets from classified to unclassified
>   computer networks ...
>
> To quote Don Adams of "Get Smart" - Would you believe ... no more than
> once a week? ... once a day?
>
>   Many [nuke] employees used their last names or initials, and some simply
>   typed "password" when logging onto classified networks, he said.
>   Now, [the czar] added, "we have a password policy that I would put up
>   against any in industry and academia."
>
> Password Policy?  Reusable passwords to guard nuclear secrets?  Doesn't
> this constitute a well-known RISK, of breach followed by fusion?
>
> Does anybody in the press ever question these publicity handouts?  Do we
> in the industry just sit on our hands, letting this travesty continue?
>
>   [Source: Energy Chief Touts Security Upgrades at Nuclear Labs,
>   Vernon Loeb, *The Washington Post*, 26 Jan 2000, A13:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-01/26/126l-012600-idx.html]