TITLE: You Want Security?
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 24, 2007 12:20 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Here is security, which comes along with
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276304">
   my new favorite error message</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT COLOR="#FF0000">
Your password must be at least 18770 characters and
cannot repeat any of your previous 30689 passwords.
Please type a different password.  Type a password
that meets these requirements in both text boxes.
</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, yeah -- be sure to type it twice.

I leave it to the TheoryCS guys at
<A HREF="http://3dpancakes.typepad.com/ernie/">
   Ernie's 3D Pancakes</A>,
<A HREF="http://weblog.fortnow.com/">
   Computational Complexity</A>,
and
<A HREF="http://geomblog.blogspot.com/">
   The Geomblog</A>
to give us the mathematical picture on how secure an
18,770-character password is, and what the implications
are for installing SP1, before which you could get by
with a passcode of a mere 17,145 characters.
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