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 defense, the password was technically “Chewy 123,” although plopping those numbers on the end is still one of the biggest rookie mistakes you can make. Which is 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 for god’s sake don’t use any of these. [ARS Technica via Digg]
