This can eventually lead to the customer's account being compromised and used as a jump off point for malicious intruders. In response to this Northlink has implemented a program of education and intervention. By educating the customer as to what a correct password is and how it can assist in the overall security of their account and our network. By passing all passwords through a quality control checklist we can catch an insecure password before it is implemented and recommend a replacement at the time of account generation or on a routine dial-up support call.
Weak passwords are generally under, but can be over, seven characters in length.
Weak passwords are usually easily guessed upon further research of the user's personal information. Weak passwords would include a customer's username, birth date, spouse or children's names and any combination of the above. These facts could conceivably be gleaned with little or no research on the part of a malicious intruder. For technologically adventurous you can follow this link to a paper discussing in greater detail the information above.