Chapter II
The first computer passwords
Shared machines needed a way to tell people apart. The secrets leaked almost at once, and the people who built them chose passwords like everyone else.
What did the father of the computer password come to think of it?
“It’s become kind of a nightmare.”
The long answerWho stole the first computer passwords, and why?
A desperate PhD student who needed more computer time.
The long answerHow did everyone’s password get printed in a welcome message?
A text editor built for one person at a time was used by two, and the password file and welcome message got swapped.
The long answerWhat did a 1979 password study find?
A handful of guessable patterns: names, words, and short strings.
The long answerWhat passwords did the 1988 internet worm try?
The ones a 1979 study had warned about, co-written by its author’s father.
The long answerWhat passwords did the people who built Unix use?
A wife’s name, a surname, a keyboard pattern, and a chess move.
The long answer