Syrian President's Email Hacked... His Password Was 12345

from the kind-of-thing-an-idiot-would-have-on-his-luggage dept

Well, this is rather incredible. With the news that Anonymous hacked the offices of the Syrian President and dumped a ton of emails online... comes the news that the hack was insanely easy. Why? Because, apparently, the password was 12345. No joke. Of course, that's considered one of the worst passwords of all time. And, as pointed out by Lauren Weinstein, this is the exact same password that was immortalized by Dark Helmet (the original one, rather than our local Techdirt hero) as being the stupidest password he's ever heard -- and the "kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!"
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Filed Under: 12345, anonymous, email, hackers, passwords, syria


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  • icon
    GMacGuffin (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 10:59am

    Ha, that scene from Spaceballs comes up a lot in IT-land (case study for clients).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lord Binky, 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:06am

    Why is it...

    Why is it you give people a list of passwords and say "DO NOT USE EVER" and your guaranteed to get some smart ass that immediately thinks "If everyone knows I'm not supposed to use it, then that means I should use it! BRILLIANT!" I�m sure there is a study where the size of the ego is proportional to the likelihood of the person coming to that �special� conclusion.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:12pm

      Re: Why is it...

      People who don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" shouldn't be judging the basic skills of others...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:25pm

        Re: Re: Why is it...

        he has it right...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Chargone (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 6:19pm

          Re: Re: Re: Why is it...

          he uses 'your', ownership, for 'you're', contraction so... no. no he doesn't.
          not on the grammar thing anyway.

          his actual Point though, yes. quite correct, and 'snowflake with arrows' AC up there is being quite silly and obnoxious in linking this grammatical error to an inability to see and point out actual Stupidity.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2012 @ 7:30am

            Re: Re: Re: Re: Why is it...

            As a grammar Nazi myself, I think AC was right on target.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    sehlat (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:09am

    My bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha detector just exploded.

    Damn! Now I need to get a replacement!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mr. Oizo, 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:16am

    Grunt. Hmm, next time I'll be smarter

    54321

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Just John (profile), 10 Feb 2012 @ 1:04am

      Re: Grunt. Hmm, next time I'll be smarter

      I personally like to use password, then when it has that password: I can easily remember it.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:19am

    aaaaah!

    why didnt anyone tell me my ass was so big?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:21am

    You miss the point Mike, now Syria's president can use the hacking as an excuse to clamp down the Internet and his people's freedoms on the Internet even more!

    The hackers fell for Syria's trap!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:34am

    If he is butchering his own people why would he need an excuse to destroy their freedom?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Endtimer (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 11:50am

    $5 says the next time he gets hacked it'll be password1

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 12:00pm

      Re:

      Your on

      my $5 is on 123456

      also what currency are we using? American Dollars or Syrian Dollars?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        monkyyy, 8 Feb 2012 @ 1:26pm

        Re: Re:

        nah he will be more sneaky "1234"

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:59pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          nah, you have to have to have a password of at least 5 characters in syria.

          In Mother Russia, at least 5 characters must have you for password.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      LOLOLOL, 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:06pm

      Surely sir you mean "hunter2"

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 6:07pm

        Re:

        Sorry, that came across as "*******", what did you actually mean to type?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 12:32pm

    He must have read the Sarah Palin Book on Secure passwords

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Berenerd (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 12:51pm

    So what you are saying is...

    I should change my secret password for my bank account...got it...


    13245

    Oops...wrong window...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 1:03pm

    In that case it wasn't really hacking... :P

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 1:17pm

    So what was in them?? Where's the text?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 1:26pm

    next 1 "54321"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Jay Fude (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:01pm

    Damn

    Now I need to change the password on my luggage.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    TtfnJohn (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:33pm

    OK, so if I can't use 1-2-3-4-5 can I use 5-4-3-2-1????

    You know that someone out there will be thinking that. Perhaps not readers of this blog but someone will.

    I've had customers tell me their password is their address number, their dog's name, the same numbers they use on their debit and credit card accounts, their birthdays and their favourite of luckiest number. (No joke of a lie here one Chinese fella, new arrival, told me his password was 88888.)

    No matter how many times we tell people to use secure passwords they don't.

    I daresay most of us are guilty of it too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anonymous, 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:38pm

    .

    His new password is "password"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Common Sense, 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:46pm

    Way to miss the obvious.

    "dumped a ton of emails online."

    WHERE? LINK?

    How do you even conceive of posting this story without the link?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Prashanth (profile), 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:46pm

    All bets

    All bets are on for guessing the password of Dark Helmet (TechDirt commenter and writer)! I'm going to guess "qwerty" :P.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    iamneopunk, 8 Feb 2012 @ 2:56pm

    The source doesn't say his password was 12345

    Quote from the source:
    "Seventy eight inboxes of Assad staffers were compromised, according to the newspaper, including several that used the password "12345," one of the most-common but obviously least secure passwords possible."

    Nowhere's written that HIS password was 12345.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:07pm

    Have Some Passwords ...

    ... courtesy of a generator of semi-pronounceable nonsense words I wrote a while back:

    moonaixiad
    leouoa
    hoyt
    hoespuyvbiou
    iuwheou
    iurdpuyaekh
    ruyrachquao
    aetuouaeiiad
    ga esoyhpoa
    choe
    sawchjuyn
    ghreylth

    (your comment-submission system is very slow today)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:29pm

    I can just imagine the security briefing for this.

    "What's your password going to be? We need to protect national seecrets."

    "1, 2, 3, 4, 5."

    "...But sir, that's--"

    "ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE."

    "...." *Exasperated sigh*

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 3:44pm

    ALL OF YOU FUCKING SUCKS AT MAKING COMMENTS, YOU ASSBAGS

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 4:31pm

    If I had to guess, its actually one of his secretaries who had the password. I doubt very much the president personally opens outlook and types '12345' every morning.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2012 @ 6:34am

      Re:

      Because anyone who thinks that's a good password would have a hard time counting that high?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    President Scroo, 8 Feb 2012 @ 5:10pm

    THAT'S AMAZING!!

    That's the same combination I have on my luggage!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2012 @ 5:20pm

    He's learned his lesson. Next time he'll make his password 123456.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2012 @ 9:26am

    Maybe he was a huge Mel Brooks fan.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bob, 9 Feb 2012 @ 2:22pm

    Kya bhasad hai

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Just John (profile), 10 Feb 2012 @ 1:15am

    password of power

    So, next we should change our password to:
    1234567890qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

    Why is it though I always get the message "This password is to long"....

    Honestly, the best way is to find 4 words 4+ letters in length, random with no direct subject links.

    I remember reviewing the stats, and a brute force attack on a basic 16 character password like this would take 56 years (approximately) to go through every combination. The whole upper case, lower case, number, special symbol is actually less secure at a length of 8 characters than a 16 character password of only lower case words.

    My home network password is 22 (6 words) characters long and my wifi access is 16 (4 words) characters long, and no matter how many brute force attacks I have had on my server (I once had a single IP address try for 2 days straight, resulting in 19 pages of logs before I noticed and permablocked the IP address), I have never had a breach.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Dave Kaufman - Techlife (profile), 21 Jun 2012 @ 1:28pm

    Used this example...

    Just used the 12345 example in my syndicated column Techlife - How to Hide Your Password In Plain Sight - http://bit.ly/MlR3It

    Care to weigh in on if it's strong enough?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    shimomura, 5 Jul 2012 @ 4:11pm

    email password

    My team & I offer hacking services.We can hack/recover? any email id,FACEBOOK & website servers & grant our clients access..We always? provide proof before payment so you know you are not being ripped off.Send me a mail "shimomurat@yahoo.com".We try to reply every client ASAP & execute the project in the quickest time-frame possible

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    METE, 5 Mar 2013 @ 2:34am

    5

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Dec 2016 @ 11:51pm

    hgtfctfuygygbujuiioijrftdsesrddstyttytyyt54r5rftyjg

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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