Microsoft Prepares to Ban Easy Passwords

Hotmail is implementing some new security measures.

When I was a kid I used to wonder how the school custodian could remember the function of all of the hundred-or-so keys he carried on that huge keyring. I could barely remember one locker combination. Nowadays, being a custodian of your online access can be even more intimidating.

In the information age, most people have many Internet accounts that are protected by user names and passwords, and if you're like me, your fear of forgetting one surfaces (just a little) every time you prepare to log on.

According to an article from PC Magazine, Microsoft Hotmail is implementing some new security features, including one that will flat-out prevent you from using any password that they feel would be extremely easy for someone to guess or decipher, so if you've been using cyber "skeleton keys" to help you remember, those days are over.

Coincidentally, this week a new study was released detailing the way the Internet - and the way we use it to remember things for us - affects our memory. Here's a link to a New York Times story about it.

Oh, and just for fun, here's a You Tube video of an easy password in action.