Date: Wed, 1 Feb 95 12:43:11 CST
From: ray (Ray Shea)
Message-Id: <9502011843.AA23894@ses.com>
To: humor
Subject: Your files are in safe hands... with Bob]`
Status: R

Newsgroups: comp.security.misc
etcom.com!netcom.com!garon
From: garon@netcom.com (Tim Garon)
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 17:27:48 GMT

Igor Chudov (ichudov@wiltel.com) wrote:
: Bear Giles (bear@bora.fsl.noaa.gov) wrote in comp.security.misc:
: : I find it hard to give credence to this, but then again we're
: : talking about Microsoft.... 

: : A coworker reported that a local newspaper (Boulder _Daily Camera_,
: : 24 Jan 1995) had an article on "Bob", and says that among other
: : things Bob will ask for your password three times, and if you can't
: : provide one it's real friendly and asks if you want to change your
: : password to something easier to remember/type!

: : I thought this was a really dumb plot point in an old _Miami Vice_
: : episode, but decided to toss it out to the wolves in case this 
: : description is accurate.

: : Has anyone else heard about this "feature"? 

: Yep, I read it, too. I think it was a mistake of some news agency, it sounds 
: way too stupid to anybody who has ever used passwords. 

As stupid as it may sound, it's true. We (being the editorial staff at 
Infosecurity News) found it odd, so we went stright to the source: the 
friendly folks at Microsoft. This is what they said: Yes Bob allows you 
to change your password if you enter it incorrectly three times. However, 
Bob is intended for home PCs where there is generally only one user. 

I guess I won't be putting Bob on my home PC. My roommate could easily 
scan all my files even though I think they're password protected.

Tim Garon, Infosecurity News