Weak passwords still subvert IT security

A recent data breach that exposed the Social Security numbers of more than 280,000 people served as yet another reminder of the well-recognized, but often discounted, risks associated with using weak and default passwords. 

In the breach of the Medicaid server at the Utah Department of Health late last month, the hackers — believed to be from Eastern Europe — exploited a configuration error at the authentication layer of the server hosting the compromised data, according to Utah IT officials.