Password help, please!

[661-Pete]

NO, not me! This poor chap. Help him to get at his millions!

I believe he's already tried "PASSWORD" and "123456789". I'm sure some of you have better suggestions. He's got two goes left...

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

A Computer programmer who has forgotten his password
Made my day!

[Jdsk]

It's taped under the desk...

Jonathan

[simonineaston]

If I was him, I'd quit trying to remember and engage a top data recovery professional - let's face it... he's got a fair bit in the bank to pay them with!!

[Paulatic]

I usually click on ‘forgot my password' Calls himself an expert

[Mick F]

If I was him, I'd quit trying to remember and engage a top data recovery professional - let's face it... he's got a fair bit in the bank to pay them with!!

Yep. Spot on.

When he's exhausted his attempts, the HD is encrypted, not scrambled.
If something is encrypted, the key for decryption exists. It's only a matter of finding it.

One of my (many) jobs in the RN was working on cryptographic equipments. Various sorts and uses.
For instance, there was a decryption device that you put a "key" in every midnight. The device was connected to the reception equipment to read the general broadcast from MOD. The device ran 24/7 with a crypto changeover at midnight.

The crypto stuff runs on a loop, and to go through all the permutations will take centuries, so each reset with the new key selects a section of the loop. Unless you have the key, the messages are utterly and completely meaningless. You can have the equipment, but unless you have the key, you have to go through the centuries of permutations to work it out.

If you switched on the device, even with the right key, it's still no use, as for each element of a character, the loop moves on a bit. It starts at midnight, so if you're switching on at noon, you have to run the device fast to catch up twelve hours whilst reading gibberish! Eventually, plain language comes out and the device is then switched to normal speed.

Very basic explanations!

[peetee]

One of my (many) jobs in the RN was working on cryptographic equipments. Various sorts and uses.
.... Unless you have the key, the messages are utterly and completely meaningless.
D

‘Squonk park bench flibble hairline Milton Keynes bluff zippo’
=
‘Mick, will you be home for dinner?’

[kwackers]

but unless you have the key, you have to go through the centuries of permutations to work it out.

The device he's used is 256 bit AES encrypted.

If you know the Chinese(?) proverb about the guy who wanted to be paid in rice with one grain on the first square of a chessboard and doubling up for each subsequent square then this is the same but with a board with 256 squares on it.

If we put our fastest computer on the job 14 billion years ago at the start of the universe it would still have trillions of years left to run...

(Presumably his password is easier to guess than a brute force attack though )