Void: Passwords https://tuanquocpham.github.io/yale-spring-20/void.html In 2013, Google released a list of the most common password types, all of which are considered insecure because they are too easy to guess. These include: the name of a pet, child, family member, or significant other, sn0wb@ll!; Anniversary dates and birthdays, FeBRuaRY29; Birthplace, I,<3NewYork; Name of a favorite holiday, lunar-new-year; Something related to a favorite sports team, LightblueDarkblue; The word "password," Password123. Passwords are like a memorized secret between yourself and the computer. Like secrets, there's good and bad passwords. And in trying to make a good password, I'll often scramble a familiar word or idea with numbers and symbols like a collaboration with the computer.
Trail: The Longest Password https://tuanquocpham.github.io/yale-spring-20/trail.html Let's forget about character limits for a moment and imagine making the longest password in the world. One day, 20 years ago, I lied about my age on yahoo.com so I could create my first email address. A secret to access a secret. In 2013, Google released a list of the most common and thus insecure passwords. Imagine sitting behind the veil and seeing all of the passwords in the world. All of the favorite colors, pet names, birthplaces, and of course the word password. I wasn't allowed to have pets growing up. But in my passwords, I imagined all of the names I could have given them. Nemo, Fuchsia, Lucky. If we met someday, would they be a pet named after a password? Did you know that the first computer to use passwords was also the first to be hacked? In the early 1960s at MIT, a computer scientist named Dr. Fernando Corbato invented the computer password to allow multiple users to privately access a shared computer. Unbeknownst to him, a fellow employee would exploit this system by logging in as others to have extra time to work. Even more shocking to Corbato was the proliferation of computer passwords in the following decades. And with their growing use came their evolution. Now it's suggested you use phrases instead of words. At my community college, my passwords would be animal facts you told me. Crocodiles swallow stones to dive deeper. Elephants never forget each other. The FIDO Alliance, or Fast IDentity Online, is working with over 250 companies, such as Google and Microsoft, to standardize two factor authentication. This method asks the user to provide two of the following three things: 1. What you know, such as a password; 2. What you have, such as a bank card; 3. Who you are, such as facial or voice recognition. About a year ago, I received a smart speaker as a gift. What time is it? Tell me a joke. Is it going to rain today? I speak to it every morning. It doesn't ask me for a string of characters. The password is my voice which it's been trained to recognize in all of my inflections. As I continue to rely on technology, I question what is the growing price I must pay for small conveniences?
Packet: Security Questions https://tuanquocpham.github.io/yale-spring-20/assets/packet.pdf While there are a myriad of ways that passwords are insecure and leave us vulnerable, security questions pose an even greater risk. Many websites, especially those related to government and financial structures, continue to utilize the same security questions. These include: What is the name of the street you grew up on? What did you want to be when you were little? What is your mother's maiden name? What is your favorite food? What was your pet's first name? Where did you go to college? What city were you born in? Though our passwords may differ from site to site, our answers to these common questions don't. Furthermore, many of their answers are easily searchable thanks to our willingness to share our life on social media. My screen is backlit, illuminating my profile in the light and dark with an array of RGB. I touch it and in turn it asks me to connect, to be vulnerable, to give access, to send and to receive.
Site: Questions About The Future https://tuanquocpham.github.io/yale-spring-20/site.html In this seemingly endless state of quarantine and limbo, all events feel like future events. It feels as if there is no present except for the constant waiting. How can one day feel so short yet one month feel so long? This is an archive of anxieties, of questions I've been asking myself.
Kiosk: GD-KO www.gd-ko.com Made in collaboration with Mianwei Wang. The swings in the atrium are a bit like a kiosk. People meet there, they're attracted to it, they loung and they play. What about another kiosk-like encounter in the atrium that instead of being a point of relaxation, it was an opportunity to relieve pent-up stress? A development blog for a punching bag that will go in the atrium. The bag will hold a computer connected to the local server and count each hit it takes. As of now, the combo counter counts how many days it has been since we started development.
This website houses various projects completed by Tuan Quoc Pham in Spring 2020 during Void, Archive, Network as taught by Mindy Seu at the Yale School of Art.