4 ms·

Seeing it being recommended by government officials in multiple countries made me realize that the website isn't localized. I think the website should be trans

Seeing it being recommended by government officials in multiple countries made me realize that the website isn't localized. I think the website should be translated, together with the domain name. Actually, "pwned" already sounds like something only those who "live and breath tech", to quote the article, would be expected to be familiar with. This unfortunately raises a serious question of trustworthiness, with regards to phishing issues. When password.com, mypassword.net and passphrase.org are valid domain, how would you know whether to trust mypassword.com? The bandwidth costs could also be prohibitive. To alleviate this issue, I would like to see the code being opened up (for perf. improvements), and distributed hosting encouraged, databases entrusted to a few trustworthy entities, with everything sponsored by a nonprofit entity. This doesn't solve the trustworthiness of the various entities, though [unless this is done on governments'websites?]. Of course, there is always the possibility of a rogue government/ISP/hoting service MITM the connection, even issuing false certs... But a rogue actor might as well MITM the target web site directly.

stordoff 9y ago
> I think the website should be translated, together with the domain name. Actually, "pwned" already sounds like something only those who "live and breath tech", to quote the article, would be expected to be familiar with. Not sure about that. I feel like translating the domain would made the phishing/trustworthiness issues more difficult - as is, there is a single canonical domain name which, at this point, has been well-publicised. Verifying that any particular translated domain for the myriad possibilities is real, especially when they may be less widely publicised/used due to having smaller userbases/fragmenting the userbase, seems tricky. I also not sure how much of an issue "pwned" is - a lot of successful services use words that _no one_ would be familiar with or that are entirely made up.
- lione 9y ago
  Yeah, Pwned is fine. I mean what's a Google? That isn't a word!
  - delecti 9y ago
    Well strictly speaking it's a typo of a word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      It's entertaining that Google are and always have been typo-squatters, but "pwn" has been a typo since the very first time it was typed. Now since there is no red squiggly line I am wondering whether I added "pwn" as a custom addition to my local dictionary...
      - mistercow 9y ago
        Seems to be standard in the macOS spellcheck dictionary. Some traditional dictionaries now contain it as well.
- WorldMaker 9y ago
  I was amused by the aside late in the article that Troy has been collecting weird misspellings of pwned, mostly thanks to media articles, and buying those domains for redirects to be helpful. Personally, I'm now in love with https://haveibeenprawned.com; https://haveibeenprawned.com; it's a like a little tiny modern internet reinterpretation of Kafka's Metamorphosis.
soylentcola 9y ago
> Actually, "pwned" already sounds like something only those who "live and breath tech", to quote the article, would be expected to be familiar with. I work in academia and a recent weekly newsletter included an article about password security and included a link to HIBP. A few hours after the newsletter came out, we received an email from a faculty member asking what it meant that he had been "pawned" because the site said he had been. While it got a few private chuckles from us, I felt obligated to point out that outside of our circles, most people have probably never heard the techie-slang term "pwned" in their lives.

stordoff 9y ago

> I think the website should be translated, together with the domain name. Actually, "pwned" already sounds like something only those who "live and breath tech", to quote the article, would be expected to be familiar with. Not sure about that. I feel like translating the domain would made the phishing/trustworthiness issues more difficult - as is, there is a single canonical domain name which, at this point, has been well-publicised. Verifying that any particular translated domain for the myriad possibilities is real, especially when they may be less widely publicised/used due to having smaller userbases/fragmenting the userbase, seems tricky. I also not sure how much of an issue "pwned" is - a lot of successful services use words that _no one_ would be familiar with or that are entirely made up.

lione 9y ago
Yeah, Pwned is fine. I mean what's a Google? That isn't a word!
- delecti 9y ago
  Well strictly speaking it's a typo of a word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    It's entertaining that Google are and always have been typo-squatters, but "pwn" has been a typo since the very first time it was typed. Now since there is no red squiggly line I am wondering whether I added "pwn" as a custom addition to my local dictionary...
    - mistercow 9y ago
      Seems to be standard in the macOS spellcheck dictionary. Some traditional dictionaries now contain it as well.
WorldMaker 9y ago
I was amused by the aside late in the article that Troy has been collecting weird misspellings of pwned, mostly thanks to media articles, and buying those domains for redirects to be helpful. Personally, I'm now in love with https://haveibeenprawned.com; https://haveibeenprawned.com; it's a like a little tiny modern internet reinterpretation of Kafka's Metamorphosis.

soylentcola 9y ago

> Actually, "pwned" already sounds like something only those who "live and breath tech", to quote the article, would be expected to be familiar with. I work in academia and a recent weekly newsletter included an article about password security and included a link to HIBP. A few hours after the newsletter came out, we received an email from a faculty member asking what it meant that he had been "pawned" because the site said he had been. While it got a few private chuckles from us, I felt obligated to point out that outside of our circles, most people have probably never heard the techie-slang term "pwned" in their lives.