Risk: Informational
A researcher at the University of Maryland left four Linux machines online that had weak passwords and discovered that a total of 270,000 intrusion attempts were made; the equivalent of one attempt every 39 seconds.
The study was led by Michel Cukier, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who wanted to investigate how hackers behave when they attack computer systems - and what they do once they gain access. The study's findings emphasised that weak passwords make hackers' jobs easier and that offering an improved selection of usernames and passwords can make it substantially more difficult for a hacker to gain system access.
More information about the study and the results is available on the University of Maryland's website at:
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1397