Re: Need to generate passwords

[Jay Maynard <jmaynard@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Oct 28, 2002 at 01:24:15PM -0500, rob@dekko.com wrote:
> Another who used his user id and tacked two numbers on it XYZ01, XYZ02,
> XYZ03 - just kept rotating it every time it expired.  Crud like this is
> why IBM has all those password rules available to make sure that letters
> are different in each position, and stuff like that.

When I was a somewhat more naive MVS systems type, at one shop (where I was
the only systems person) I configured RACF to enforce no password
duplication for 32 iterations, and a few other things designed to ensure
secured passwords.

This resulted in everyone, without exception, writing down their password
and keeping it someplace near their terminal.

It's possible to force users to pick secure passwords...but it's not
possible to force users to keep their passwords secure. In the final
analysis, the system is only as secure as the laziest, least educated user.