Because it could be an encoded terrorist message. There is no way to tell the difference between an encoded message and random characters at first glance.

That is why you put the password to the HIDDEN volume somewhere safe and put the password to the regular install of windows on the bottom of your keyboard or on the monitor itself

The point isn't loss of data, it is loss of the lives of people who had nothing to do with the security of the systems.

The fun part is not just the people designing the medical equipment can be at fault. (Computers just running software that interacts with the equipment, etc. can be almost as life critical as the equipment itself.)

I am almost positive the MRI machines at one nearby hospital are at least indirectly connected to the internet as they can send the results through the network to whoever ordered the test, even while the test is being done. I could see a plus as long as this is done correctly as the company that manufacturers or maintains the equipment could have their own monitoring in place to detect early warning signs of failure (or over irradiation in the case of x-ray and cat machines, from an earlier article)

Lots of hospital computers are not life critical but could significantly increase the risk of someone dying if they fail. The networked machines that an ICU has that show every person's vitals (I think some hospitals have this on big screens above the nurses station similar to how NOC employees monitor their networks) could fail without someone dying, but you now have to manually go and check every system every so many minutes taking time away from treating patients.

I believe similar monitoring is done in normal hospital rooms anymore depending on the hospital. You may not hear the alarm on the heart monitor when the nurses station is 200 feet away and the door is closed. Many of these systems are networked so that those same nurses/doctors can pull up test information (even MRI or X-Ray results) sometimes even as the tests are being done. Not every facility has the budget to maintain 2 or more completely isolated networks.

The system that was in my hospital room last time (surgical recovery) was a wireless networked laptop (windows xp) that they used to verify medications/patient arm bands/etc. If this would fail, do they have backup systems (paper), probably if they are up to date with the computers. Is it going to increase risk of human error, especially with staff who are used to relying on the computer systems, yes.

The point of this massive post is, even if the system itself failing doesn't mean someone is going to die as a direct result, in a hospital there is a pretty good probability that it could significantly increase the risk of someone dying because they couldn't have an cat scan done because the computer crashed, etc.

Always be funny if they made a photo copy of it and spent a bunch of money trying to decode the message, less so if you were in a cell while they were doing it.

Good luck trying even 100 passwords in a reasonable time on any relatively secure system. Most lock you out if you fail 3-5 tries within 5-15 minutes. Say you can try 5 per 5 minutes, at a minimum it is going to take about 2 hours. I know some systems by default base lockout time on number of password failures increasing up to 24 hours to 2 weeks for remotely accessed systems. On more secure systems the system administrator gets a brute force notice and/or a semi permanent to permanent ban from that IP, terminal, or even account until it is reset.

still not a smart idea but the best thing to do is to use some kind of basic encoding on the passwords that you can undo mentally but someone can't just copy down into the password prompt. ROT13 (or just a 1 or 2 letter/number increase) would be one of the more basic. I am sure there are sites that describe more advanced things but mixing together two or more equal length passwords (abc and def becomes adbecf), etc. are all other options

100% security is possible if you have physical control of a device and want to make sure that nobody ever gets access to it again. (Turning the device into a fine powder and then either melting it down or distributing it across a very large area).... I believe at one point at least that is how the government handled things.

Storing a backup version of your data that you do not need frequent access to on the other hand is possible to get 99.999% secure but as you increase the security level you also frequently increase the chances of complete data loss because you lost part or all of the key.

I know of at least one combination lock that is 1234 but it is mainly just as a deterrent for younger kids. There is nothing behind the doors that has any value that you are getting out of the building in one piece anyway.

It also verifies that your input is actually being recognized in a way that prevents shoulder surfing. Some people also can tell if they accidentally hit an extra key, etc.

The login prompts that just show a blank password field don't indicate if the system/network link just threw a fit and isn't responding.

I think the IT majors that include at least a couple business courses would be also be a major asset for those who are still in school (or even after graduation taking a couple general courses). Yes there are many executives, etc. that don't know a thing about IT but there are probably just as many or more IT personnel who don't know a thing about running a business. If you are able to explain things in business terms in a way that the executives are going to actually understand, it benefits them because they know more about what is going on in the department and it benefits you because you are more likely to get what you need to make your job easier to do.

Collecting ALL of the water is one thing, collecting all of the water you need is another thing. If the water storage system gets overloaded just let the excess run off.

If that is the case in at least some areas you are legally allowed to run the light as it is a malfunctioning light. Have fun going across 6 lanes though.

One possibility would be some people being more sensitive to possible slight variations in electromagnetic fields which could be caused by pipes, wires, water, etc.