Understanding Data - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 39

FIGURE 1-26 A History of the World in 100 Seconds by Gareth Lloyd, http://datal.ws/24a
However, just because you have data doesn't mean you should make a graphic
and share it with the world. Context can help you add a dimension—a layer
of information—to your data graphics, but sometimes it means it's better to
hold back because it's the right thing to do.
In 2010, Gawker Media, which runs large blogs like Lifehacker and Gizmodo,
was hacked, and 1.3 million usernames and passwords were leaked. They were
downloadable via BitTorrent. The passwords were encrypted, but the hackers
cracked about 188,000 of them, which exposed more than 91,000 unique
passwords. What would you do with that kind of data?
The mean thing to do would be to highlight usernames with common (read
that poor) passwords, or you could go so far as to create an application that
guessed passwords, given a username.
A different route might be to highlight just the common passwords, as
shown in Figure 1-27. This offers some insight into the data without making
it too easy to log in with someone else's account. It might also serve as a
warning to others to change their passwords to something less obvious. You
know, something with at least two symbols, a digit, and a mix of lowercase
and uppercase letters. Password rules are ridiculous these days. But I digress.