Information Security Specialist

After a lifetime of distrust, a career in the military and a bachelors degree in computer science security is my current profession. I have spent my life trying to find my way around the rules. Couple that with my love of computers and my intense curiosity and you have a hacker waiting for a place to happen. The old saying goes "it takes a thief to catch a thief". Exchange the word "thief" with the word "hacker" and you understand why I am successful. I am not now or ever was a thief or a criminal computer hacker. I knew I could get into systems. But I never felt a need to prove my skills. It doesn't take an Einstein to be a hacker. It might help. But it is really a way of living. Pushing the envelope. Looking for ways around the rules, without breaking them. Loop-holes in the system. The best way to never get caught breaking in; is to never break-in. It just takes an incredible amount of self confidence. Something the Lord filled me with.
For 10 years I was a security expert for a large Southern California city. I was responsible for protecting a computer network of immense proportions. It covered a metropolitan area 372.1 Sq. miles(963.6 Km2) in geographical size. With 10,000 users and literally thousands of servers and more printers than anyone could count. During that time we only suffered one breach of security. And it was an insider job. Our perimeter was under constant probing and entry attempts. 1.7 million per day, on average. I would watch intrusion attempts from places like, South Korea, France, Germany, The peoples Republic of China and various universities located in ther USA. It got to the point where I could guess the source location, just by the sequence of intrusion methods attempted. So I have felt a need to help others know what I know. And today's lesson is "PASSWORDS"
Every one has a password. Some good. Some not so much. Hacker groups will try everything to gain your password. Brute force guessing, Dictionary, lexicons, and rainbow file comparators. The list goes on forever. The single most recognized hacker is Kevin Mitnick. A little known fact is that Kevin had no real computer hacking skills. He was, what we call in the business, a Social Engineer. He would call the CEO's Secretary and pretend to be someone in the It department that needed the bosses password to fix a problem that the boss had called in about. He knew the boss was out of the office because his/her email was set to auto reply that the CEO was on vacation. How did he find out the CEO's email address? Good question. It shows you are paying attention. The CEO's address was posted along with a phone number on the corporate web-site. If the admin assistant protested, he would just make a subtle threat saying "Well you tell the boss why he/she can't read their email while out of state." This was all he ever needed. You don't need any computer hacking skills if you know the password.
So, How do you make a password the can't be cracked, guessed or brute forced and still easy to remember? Easy! Don't use a pass-WORD. Use pass-PHRASE. For example; pick your favorite biblepassage. Mine is the 23rd Psalm. But you can't use the whole psalm. it won't fit. Pick a part of it. "Shadowofdeath". (Since I have posted this on the Internet I highly recommend not using this exact phrase). This is an easy to remember, hard to crack, but still easy to guess password. Now lets make it impenetrable. Change a vowel to a number! lets change the "o" for "0". That's change the oh's for zero's. Shadowofdeath, becomes Shad0w0fdeath. If you want to be trickier, change all of the vowels. Shadowofdeath, now becomes Sh@d0w0fd3@th.
Easy to remember. Impossible to crack. And completely unguessable. But if you tell it to anyone even your assistant, it is not "YOUR" passphrase anymore. change it every 90 days just to be sure, and compliant with most corporate security policies (Yes, I said comply with the rules). And when you change it you may have to find a new favorite bible verse. And reading the bible, for any reason, is a good thing.
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