Back in 2012, the FBI nabbed Jeremy Hammond, the most wanted cybercriminal in the country, at his home in Chicago. And until now no one had any idea how the feds actually managed to decrypt the hard drive they found there. Turns out it’s pretty easy to break into a hacker’s computer when your password is the name of your pet cat Chewy.
In Hammonds defence, the password was technically “Chewy 123”, although plopping those numbers on the end is still one of the biggest rookie mistakes you can make. It’s surprising coming from the guy who managed to hack into security think tank Stratfor’s own website.
The lesson here, boys and girls? Encrypting your hard drive doesn’t do much good when the key is on your cat’s bowl. And don’t use any of these. [ARS Technica via Digg]