Syrian PM's e-mail account hacked, password? 12345.

[Initech]

Anonymous Hacks Syrian President; His Password Was 12345

If we're honest, many of us are likely guilty of using sub-par passwords. However, chances are, if we were hacked, no one but us would have to know about it. The same can't be said for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who is facing public ridicule after his account was compromised.

It seems al-Assad recently became the target of web hactivist group Anonymous; the group managed to successfully hack into his email account this week. That said, we imagine the job was something of a bore for Anonymous, which just last week revealed that it had managed to eavesdrop on a phone call between Scotland Yard and the FBI. After all, it can't have taken much hacking prowess to access an account protected with the world's second weakest password: 12345. To make matters worse, Anonymous was also able to access 78 accounts belonging to al-Assad's staff, with 33 of them using the same 12345 or 123456 passwords.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Anonymous-Syrian-president-email-password-leaked-hacked,14663.html

[Curmudgeoness]

1. Every time I try to use that password,

I am nagged to have at least 8 characters, with at least one letter and at least one number, and sometimes I have to add a symbol, and sometimes I have to use capital letters and small cap letters.

How did he pull that one off???

[drm604]

3. Not all email software enforces rules like that.

[drm604]

2. Part of my job is to create email accounts for new users.

I always give them passwords that consist of a randomly generated string of letters and numbers. This article is a good example of why.

That said: