“Word is coming in from Europe that Apple is forcing [MobileMe] users with under eight characters and without both a number and a letter to reset their passwords today,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9 to 5 Mac.
“The mandate is an invisible one and some users who don’t meet the criteria are just getting empty login failures,” Weintraub reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Gee, some notice would’ve been nice, Apple! Anyway, Mac OS X helpfully includes an excellent way to create strong passwords:
1. Launch “System Preferences.”
2. Click “Accounts.”
3. Click the lock to make changes.
4. Click “Change Password.”
5. Click the key icon.
6. Password Assistant appears.
7. Use it to create strong passwords and use them! (Don’t actually change your Account password unless you want to.)
To skip steps 1-6, download Code Poetry’s tiny “Password Assistant” which simply calls the Mac OS X Password Assistant dialog on demand. It’s available here. Drop it in your Applications folder and maybe even in your Dock and just click it whenever you need to come up with a good strong password.
I can confirm that I too had to change to a password of at least 8 characters. I’m a US account holder in Los Angeles.
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They did that to me today. I already had an alphanumeric password with 10 characters – 8 letters and 2 numbers. Still made to change it though.
i understand the need for security, but this was rolled our in an un-apple fashion. all of a sudden my developer account needed to have its password updated. this then propogated down through mobileme iDisk (which stopped syncing) and mail.app
honestly, this whole password strength thing is retarded. most data breaches occur from the inside. in any case, if I set my password to 1234 and my data is stolen isn’t that my fault? why be forced to do this? i have so many passwords at this point between my personal and work life that its just getting ridiculous. then each month, quarter, year, all of these passwords have to be re-entered and you can’t use the same password again for a year. bah!
I also had to change as I had a 6 character password.I live in the US
Darn! Now I’ll have to re-name my cat, too.
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I’m in Sweden and have been dealing with this problem for about three weeks now. Have always had a password with at least 8 characters and it still works with desktop apps and the iTunes store, just not with logging in to MobileMe. When I reset the password according to their instructions the new one works with desktop apps and the iTunes store, but not with logging in to MobileMe. Apple has escalated my case to the engineers, but no relief yet. First big problem with this service since they launched it.
@Not customer friendly
“I set my password to 1234 and my data is stolen isn’t that my fault”
Yes it is but the problem is perception- if you get your data stolen because of an “easy” password- all that usually gets publicly know is “Apple MobileMe users getting data stolen”. That’s the headline-
But… I agree- Steve & Company should have provided a little grace period.
Had to change mine too, despite already being password strong. It is a little annoying, however it is not that hard to do. We should change passwords more than most of us do anyway. There may be more to this. Apple may be aware of a security threat and taking action before it is a problem. This minor inconvenience may be saving us a huge pain in the ass.
I’m in Canada and just had this trouble when logging into me.com. Had me scratching my head thinking I had gone crazy, but just decided to reset the password. Then go and change it in my iPad, iPhone etc. etc. A pain – a little better now that I know I’m not crazy…
The stupidest part is that you can’t “reuse” a password you have already used before for a YEAR. How is that helpful? This is a crap move to be certain. Let me set my own passwords and choose when and how often to change them. Some of us are smart enough to employ our own security measures. We don’t need your “help” to do so.
@Mac Daddy,
What’s your cat’s name?
@ Kuipo, Stupidest? Those of you who are smart enough to employ your own security measures ought to be setting up your own security business’s. You think you are smarter than Apple inc to know better than them?
What if Apple inc., let you have your own way and your account was cracked? would it reflect badly on Apple inc., or on you?
Anyone who declares themselves smart will always be proven not to be so, certainly in many aspects of life.
Use 1Password!
I just signed in to my MobileMe account and used my old not at all secure password. Worked great, no comments, no mention about my password. What gives?
Early this week, I was prompted to change my 6-char alphanumeric password. Put in my existing password and it accepted it. Probably not for long though.
So “BiteMe” won’t work anymore?
Aww.
Just as long as they keep accepting my old .Mac domains, I’ll stick around. Can’t stand the egocentric sounding .Me suffix.
I had same password since iTools came and then got some login issues with iTunes, I think it was almost a month ago.
I was then redirected to My account page where the new login rules was stated next to password line.
I modified my password to fit the new rules. It trickled down to my three macs, iPhone and iPad through MobileMe sync mostly ok.
The only issue I have is the inconstitance behavior of where logins started fail when it showed up at first. It worked ok with mail and iDisk and not with iTunes, that confused me.
Not knowing about this story, I did change my MobileMe password to only six characters (with a number) this morning, and it worked!
This after it wouldn’t let me to the same thing just a few weeks ago.
?
My other MobileMe account still works. (also with six characters that includes a number)
@Kuipo
“The stupidest part is that you can’t “reuse” a password you have already used before for a YEAR. How is that helpful?”
The MoibleMe password I just went back to this morning (6 characters) was one I was just using a month ago.
——– I’m not complaining
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My guess is that had a security breach and they’re doing damage control.
What did that email say that allegedly came from Steve? Something about big changes coming to MobileMe in 2011.
Maybe Apple is thinking we’re going to store even more stuff on MobileMe and they are gearing up for better data protection.
Piss me off..I am now locked out. I tried changingIng my password and it wouldn’t recognize the new one. Now it won ‘t let me change it as Mobile me no longer recognizes me (personal info to change password)…WTF?
And if you cannot log in with your current, unacceptable password, how are you going to get to your account settings to change to an acceptable password? Catch 22, duh!
1Password will do it for you, amongst other great stuff.
http://agilewebsolutions.com/downloads
I was having problems with it and this morning I changed my password and it started to work fine again. I did notice though that I now have 11 free days added to my subscription. I was suppose to renew it today but it’s been pushed back. I wonder if this is due to the problem of not being able to log in? It didn’t affect me to much since my computer and iPhone both sync to MobileMe already. I rarely use the web version.
ShortzN8Her
Now that’s a strong password…
This happened to me yesterday morning. It sucked! Reset password wasn’t working, I had to go throu an online chat session and the CSR’s didn’t know or were saying why my login pass wasn’t working… I knew I didn’t forget my password after 5 years. Just saying an advance warning notice would have been appriciated.
Some of us are smart enough to use a USER account for our user tasks and never open our ADMIN accounts for anything but the most important (typically security-related) work. Some of us already know better than to use a “word” that can be found in “Webster’s”, even if you mash in the usual numbers and punctuation to make it more secure … some of us use short phrases or foreign words – with strange capitalization, numbers and punctuation ALL tucked in.
Then there are those who are “too smart” to make these efforts, or too lazy, or who just “know” the hackers can get past any such measures. Which are you? Are you surfing from your Admin account right now?
@ DLMeyer
Using the admin account? Not me! I go straight to root! The feeling of power is overwhelming!
” rel=”nofollow”>Lord of teh Root — One Geek to rule hem all!
“Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, payed me a visit. As we were talking I mentioned having recently installed Windows 98 on my PC and that I am very happy with this operating system. I also showed him the Windows 98 CD, to my surprise he threw it into my micro-wave oven and turned on the oven. Instantly I got very upset, because the CD had become precious to me, but he said: ‘Do not worry, it is unharmed.’ “
Ut-oh. Sound familiar?
“After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said: ‘Take a close look at it.’ To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and it seemed to be heavier than before. At first I could not see anything, but then on the inner edge of the central hole I saw an inscription; an inscription finer than anything I have ever seen before. The inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth:
4F6E65204F5320746F2072756C65207468656D20616C6C2C204F6E65204F5320746F2066696E64207468656D2CDA4F6E65204F5320746F206272696E67207468656D20
616C6C20616E6420696E20746865206461726B6E6573732062696E64207468656D
“‘I cannot understand the fiery letters,’ I said.
“‘No,’ he said ‘but I can. The letters are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Microsoft, which I shall not utter here. But in common English this is what it says:
One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
8^þ
If you whisper that into a Google search
On the Winter’s Solstice
You will receive on the next equinox
the written word of Jesus
For yard work performed.
I read that in the DaVinci Code for Dummies/ Big Lawn Edition….
Sorry, that should have been “Jésus”.
But, but my yard is covered in snow!
He does snow removal, too.
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(Of course, it would take a miracle to still have snow on March 20th…)
Not March 20! Oh, nooooooo….
“March 20, 1992: TV ads are used for the first time to promote Microsoft Windows to computer users who don’t necessarily read computer magazines.”
This is the best site I’ve found to give people to help them create a secure password:
http://www.passwordmeter.com/
It tells you clearly why what you’ve chosen has failed the secure test.