For some reasone, I login to me Seti account, and all the information has been changed. I think that about does it for me. It seems anyone can create a random sequence of characters and get access to people's accounts. You guys need some kind of password (even if it is also a random sequence of characters). I'm tired of it. I'm terminating all running processes on all computers running either seti classic or boinc.

Jim Sunshine

james_h_sunshine@yahoo.com

The key is one of 32 caracters.

What could be the chance to form exactly the sequence like it is?

What is the chance to form a password of some let's say 10 characters that nobody could brake?

The probability of guessing YOUR account key is 1 in 16^32 = 3.40*10^38 (1 in 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 to be exact). Lets say there are a billion BOINC users, each with their own unique account key (a very high estimate). Then there is a 1 in 3.40*10^29 chance of guessing ANY one of the billion users' account key (for a comparison, the odds of winning the powerball are 1 in 2.76*10^9, or 1 in 2,763,633,600). Maybe a supercomputer devoted to entering in various permutations of account keys (or perhaps a BOINC project, accountkey@home ;)) could guess somebody's, but that would be a terrible waste of time.

You could also think of it like this: the probability of guessing your 32 digit account key is exactly the same as if it were a 16 digit account key with a 16 digit password. The security of this account key is probably more secure than any username/password combination that you currently have, and it's easier to enter since there's only one field.

I'd be willing to bet that the reason your information was changed was either that you accidentally gave someone access to your account key (is there more than one person that uses your computer?), or it's a database glitch.

[edit] You would have to have a 22 digit randomized password from a 62 character alphabet (all numbers, capital and lowercase letters) for your yahoo account before I would be more likely to break your BOINC account key than your yahoo account.

---

Here's an Installation Guide.
Try the Wiki for other questions.

what was changed?????

---

Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.

Credit cards are pretty secure. Less numbers even than your BOINC key. Anyone ever guess your credit card number?

Do you really think anyone would go to the effort to 'crack' your key just so they could fiddle with your preferences???