A huge technical reason is that many such characters are not encoded the same on different platforms. Character translations occur all over the place.
Another reason could be that complex passwords have not been shown to add value. In fact, I have seen one study (I wish I could recall the source) that suggests that simpler is better. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Mattson Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:51 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Forbidding Special characters in passwords I am constantly amazed at the number of sites which FORBID the use of special characters in passwords and userid's. And by the sites which LIMIT the length of passwords and userid's. Since the number of possible combinations increases exponentially with the possibe values for each character and the number of characters, I cannot fathom why they impose such limits. But they do on such financial sites as Vanguard Mutual Funds, Scottrade, and World Savings. I eMail them regularly and complain, but I have seen no changes so far. There may be a case for forbidding certain special characters, and I think that requiring special characters might be counter productive, but I cannot see any logical reason for completely forbidding them. NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message, together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
