Editorial: Important Password Info
Posted by Patience
At the time of writing this (it was first posted in the January news) the login message was:
Be careful with using the same passwords on different muds! People have complained about stolen
or killed characters when they share passwords with their characters on other muds.
I cannot but help stress this point. Passwords are on the average are very easy to crack.
I knew someone on Isengard who could crack about 75% of the passwords that people use. For
instance, don't use "bad" words like shit or fuck, don't use "password" for your password,
don't use your girlfriend or boyfriends name, and most of all, don't use the characters name
as the password.
Having served as an immortal on several muds, I know how easy it is to get a players password,
especially if the code has been modified (as it was on Aryon) to show the password everytime a DM or
CT *stats a player. Use different passwords for different muds. You should also use different passwords
for other internet stuff you do, like icq or other online gaming. Also try varying the CaSe of your
passwords, this makes it much harder to just randomly crack. Other tricks are to use numbers in the
password like: "Hell0", "Every1L0vesMe, or periods: "my.pwRd.rox" or better yet, use both "nO1.wiLL.GetM3".
Another big security note is don't "tell" or "grouptalk" your password or ANY sensitive information.
There are listening ears out there and unless you know ALL of the admin's very well, you shouldn't make
yourself vulnerable. One of my friends had a different 12 letter password for each of her characters,
while I don't have the patience to bother with that extreme security, it is an option. Also, if you have
friends or brothers/sisters who just maybe would try and log in your character, don't use the built in
auto-log features in some mud programs.
As I type, someone (presumably from realms) logged in a broadcast a rather rude message aimed at the
DM's saying that the DM's on realms hate Isengard so why would they steal passwords. Not to say that
they did, but really, isn't that a reason to do it? To get people fed up with Isengard and upset that
they're character got trashed? And also, why bitch and moan at the people who are writing the code
that you use to support your mud? Well don't get me started on all the immature "isenhaters" I'll have
plenty to rant on about that some other day.
And if you do have a password the same on two muds, no matter what mud it is, I urge you to change
them now. If your character gets "stolen" there really isn't very much that the DM's can do. This isn't
because of laziness or spite, but because how can they substantiate the claim that it really was "your"
character? And furthermore the sheer amount of time it would take to restore stolen characters would be
a task I wouldn't wish on anyone. Finally it really was YOUR fault for not practicing good security
precautions. Well that was just my little tirade for the day prompted by the login message. If you've
got any comments on this let me know!
