4 ms·

Better title: "A 12 years old boy hacked your government websites. Lack of security is concerning." Seriously, security on governmental websites (in Canada and

Better title: "A 12 years old boy hacked your government websites. Lack of security is concerning." Seriously, security on governmental websites (in Canada and Québec) is terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if they stored password in plain text: they ask you to choose a shorter password if yours is too long.

Frozenlock 13y ago
Oh and they don't support Chrome, because 'it updates too fast'.
iLoch 13y ago
Ding ding ding. Visited the website for National Student Loans Services Centre and forgot my password. Email reset? Here's your password! No! Why?
- redthrowaway 13y ago
  >No! Why? It was built by the co-op students who couldn't get placements anywhere else.
  - DonPellegrino 13y ago
    That's actually exactly what happens. Co-op programs are huge in Québec and that's a good thing. Government jobs usually pay 30-40% less and most of the time the less skilled students end up doing their co-op(s)/internship(s) there.
- eigenvector 13y ago
  To be fair, the worst thing someone could do with your NSLSC password is pay off your student loan for you. ;)
chimeracoder 13y ago
> they ask you to choose a shorter password if yours is too long. Not unlike many US banks. Or even Canadian ones - TD Bank, IIRC, caps passwords at some ridiculously short length.
- hdevalence 13y ago
  8 characters, letters + numbers.
Elv13 13y ago
Most of them don't have passwords, they are static pages created in Ms Word XP or FrontPage 97 (to this day). They are now getting "modern" with heavy PHP+Typo3, notice the '"'. Seriously, the requirement of some Qc government organization to make page editing compatible with Microsoft Word (forbid CSS, favor tables) mandatory is the dumbest IT rule I ever saw. PHP will, on the long run, create an even bigger mess than Ms Word. I hate to say that, but they should have gone with Java. The quality of most of their programmers leave to be desired, you can't expect forward thinking practices. Not saying entry level programmers are useless, but relying on them for code with 20+ years lifecycle is not an economical decision. *I never and will never work for them, but I came across some of their monstrosities as a consultant or over some (geek) beer talks (better than weather, at least funnier).

Frozenlock 13y ago

Oh and they don't support Chrome, because 'it updates too fast'.

iLoch 13y ago

Ding ding ding. Visited the website for National Student Loans Services Centre and forgot my password. Email reset? Here's your password! No! Why?

redthrowaway 13y ago
>No! Why? It was built by the co-op students who couldn't get placements anywhere else.
- DonPellegrino 13y ago
  That's actually exactly what happens. Co-op programs are huge in Québec and that's a good thing. Government jobs usually pay 30-40% less and most of the time the less skilled students end up doing their co-op(s)/internship(s) there.
eigenvector 13y ago
To be fair, the worst thing someone could do with your NSLSC password is pay off your student loan for you. ;)

chimeracoder 13y ago

> they ask you to choose a shorter password if yours is too long. Not unlike many US banks. Or even Canadian ones - TD Bank, IIRC, caps passwords at some ridiculously short length.

hdevalence 13y ago
8 characters, letters + numbers.

Elv13 13y ago

Most of them don't have passwords, they are static pages created in Ms Word XP or FrontPage 97 (to this day). They are now getting "modern" with heavy PHP+Typo3, notice the '"'. Seriously, the requirement of some Qc government organization to make page editing compatible with Microsoft Word (forbid CSS, favor tables) mandatory is the dumbest IT rule I ever saw. PHP will, on the long run, create an even bigger mess than Ms Word. I hate to say that, but they should have gone with Java. The quality of most of their programmers leave to be desired, you can't expect forward thinking practices. Not saying entry level programmers are useless, but relying on them for code with 20+ years lifecycle is not an economical decision. *I never and will never work for them, but I came across some of their monstrosities as a consultant or over some (geek) beer talks (better than weather, at least funnier).