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Yahoo Drags Down Google, Ebay. Is It Deserved?

Written by Evan Schuman
September 19th, 2006
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After Yahoo announced today that it would scale back its third-quarter financial expectations because of weak recent Web ad sales, Google and Ebay joined Yahoo in a shared stock-fall ride. Let’s set aside for the moment that Wall Street’s “what have you done for me lately?” financial analysis is not the way to run an E-Commerce company. But there does tend to a lack of there there with much in E-Commerce today.

Yes, online ads are much easier to measure. But consumers are clicking less and less and advertisers are starting to question how strong a sales lead a clicker is anyway. Advertisers are absolutely pulling dollars away from print and putting it online. But will the online ROI keep them for the long term? I have serious doubts. (But, please, while you’re debating that point, click on a bunch of our Google ads. I love being proven wrong.)


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Kill All The Passwords

This article does mention, but does not give enough attention to, the fact that the attacks discussed are only feasible when the encrypted password file can be copied and subjected to an offline attack. The trick is to have authentication performed on a separate, much more strongly secured host - such as an Active Directory Domain Controller, or a Kerberos server, or a NIS+ server, or even using something as banal as an LDAP-over-SSL authentication dialog. In these environments, the odds of the "password file" being stolen and subjected to an offline attack go to near zero, and only online attacks may be carried out by the attacker. With sensible exponential backoff between failed password attempts, lockout after a modest number of failed attempts on a single account, and pattern detection, that minimum 7 character password is quite secure enough. Passwords aren't dead yet for security purposes, and they will be with us for a very long while to come for practical purposes. The trick is to employ them correctly. Read more...
The possibilities you describe are years away from being implemented at best, so for the moment passwords are an ugly reality. Luckily, password managers can easily manage hundreds of passwords of any length. The only thing a user needs to remember is the master password. It seems like an easier task to educate users on how to use password managers rather than implement complex security technology on a global basis. Read more...