Since quite a while back passwords on all Telkom accounts, whether it be DSL, site or webmail all require a set pattern for a password. It must start with an uppercase character, have at least one digit in it and at least one special character (@, !, $, %, etc.). Now, that's a pretty idea to enforce users to have a secure password, however studies in password cracking have shown that a phrase is better than a set password in terms of security; it would take longer for a super-computer to calculate a password that is a sentence than a modern PC would take to calculate that of a standard nature (such as Telkom implements).
Now, that isn't really a problem seeing as you could have a sentence with the requirements set... But you have to consider who is using Telkom... A post on MyBB's Tech News (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/104201-new-telkom-adsl-numbers-impress.html) reported that Telkom had "926,944 ADSL subscribers in March 2014". That is a fairly large number of users, but I pose the question: how many of them are actually tech savvy? I highly doubt that over 20% of those users are capable of setting up their own router; in fact, their router credentials are still "admin" and "admin". Even a few of my friends who know a fair amount about computers still have that set as their security.
Considering this, how many people, do you think actually use a Telkom password that isn't 8 characters long, starts with an uppercase character, followed by six letters, a number and then a special character at the end? A hacker's paradise if you ask me.
Now, that isn't really a problem seeing as you could have a sentence with the requirements set... But you have to consider who is using Telkom... A post on MyBB's Tech News (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/104201-new-telkom-adsl-numbers-impress.html) reported that Telkom had "926,944 ADSL subscribers in March 2014". That is a fairly large number of users, but I pose the question: how many of them are actually tech savvy? I highly doubt that over 20% of those users are capable of setting up their own router; in fact, their router credentials are still "admin" and "admin". Even a few of my friends who know a fair amount about computers still have that set as their security.
Considering this, how many people, do you think actually use a Telkom password that isn't 8 characters long, starts with an uppercase character, followed by six letters, a number and then a special character at the end? A hacker's paradise if you ask me.
