ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley Passwords. We’ve had them for a long time. They’ve served us well. But they are also subject to attacks — phishing and spoofing. Microsoft and many other vendors want us to move to passkeys. Unfortunately, the transition has not been easy or clear. Passwords are what we are used to. […]

ISSUE 23.20 • 2026-05-18 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Normally, I’d come to you at this time of the month and say, “Forget the operating systems — patch those browsers.” This time, I’m going to say, “Forget the operating systems — check the settings in your browsers.” Chrome hit the headlines two weeks ago when […]

Why are companies still recommending an 8-character password minimum?  Passwords are some of the easiest targets for attackers, yet companies still allow weak passwords in their environment. Multiple service providers recommend […]

The post Podcast: Passwords: You Are the Weakest Link appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

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Michael Allen // Every year around the holidays I end up having a conversation with at least one friend or family member about the importance of choosing unique passwords for […]

The post The Paper Password Manager appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Why are companies still recommending an 8-character password minimum?  Passwords are some of the easiest targets for attackers, yet companies still allow weak passwords in their environment. Multiple service providers recommend […]

The post Webcast: Passwords: You Are the Weakest Link appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

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Darin Roberts // “Why do you recommend a 15-character password policy when (name your favorite policy here) recommends only 8-character minimum passwords?” I have had this question posed to me […]

The post Passwords: Our First Line of Defense appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

David Fletcher// The weak password policy finding is typically an indicator of one of two conditions during a test: A password could be easily guessed using standard authentication mechanisms. A […]

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Kelsey Bellew // Dear Big All-Powerful Company, Your idea of a ‘strong password’ is flawed. When I first saw the following message, I laughed. I said out loud, “No, you […]

The post An Open Letter about Big All-Powerful Company’s Password Policy appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Sally Vandeven // Back in November Beau Bullock wrote a blog post describing how his awesome PowerShell tool MailSniper can sometimes bypass OWA portals to get mail via EWS if […]

The post How to Bypass Two-Factor Authentication – One Step at a Time appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Kent Ickler // As a start to a series on Windows Administration in the eyes of a security-conscious “Windows Guy” I invite you on configuring AD DS PSOs (Password Security […]

The post How to Increase the Minimum Character Password Length (15+) Policies in Active Directory appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Lawrence Hoffman // The list this week is a little shorter, I didn’t include a tool or POC link as I usually do. No particular reason, just didn’t run across […]

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Carrie Roberts // Answer: Enough to make it worth it! Penetration testers love to perform password spraying attacks against publicly available email portals as described here in this great post by Beau Bullock. […]

The post Question:  What Can I Learn from Password Spraying a 2FA Microsoft Web App Portal? appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Lawrence Hoffman // It’s been one of those crazy busy weeks. I always feel like I didn’t get enough time to read articles, surf Reddit, and attempt to keep up […]

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Joff Thyer // Recently I have been thinking about online challenges I encounter in daily life.   As I thought about it, I realized that many of these items I […]

The post 10 Ways to Protect Your Online Digital Life appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Rick Wisser & Gail Menius // Frequently we get asked about where to store passwords.  Should they be stored in a word/excel /txt file on your computer? Maybe, written down […]

The post Herding Those Pesky Passwords appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Gail Menius // Once upon a time, in a land not too far away (about two miles from where I’m sitting now) I used to be an elementary school librarian. […]

The post Passphrases for Tiny People appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Brian King // There’s a one-liner password spray script that a lot of folks use to see if anyone on a domain is using a bad password like LetMeIn! or […]

The post Check\ Your\ Tools appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Beau Bullock // This is part two of a series of posts (See part 1 here) where I am detailing multiple ways to gain access to domain user credentials without ever being […]

The post Password Spraying Outlook Web Access – How to Gain Access to Domain Credentials Without Being on a Target’s Network: Part 2 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Beau Bullock // In this series of posts I am going to detail multiple ways to gain access to domain user credentials without ever being on a target organization’s network. […]

The post Exploiting Password Reuse on Personal Accounts: How to Gain Access to Domain Credentials Without Being on a Target’s Network: Part 1 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..