With password security, popularity is everything

Microsoft researchers Cormac Herley and Stuart Schechter, and Harvard University Computer Science professor Michael Mitzenmacher came together on a research paper,"Popularity is Everything: A new approach to protecting passwords from statistical-guessing attacks."

If users are forced to choose "unpopular"passwords, instead of "strong" ones, it can provide a better defense against a type of attack known as "statistical guessing." For organizations with millions of users, like Microsoft Hotmail, researchers propose a system that would count how many times any user on the service chooses a specific password.

When more than a small, limited number of users pick the same password, that password is then banned. No one else would be allowed to use it.

Read the complete article in NetworkWorld