If you're outside the USA and Canada then you might already know that you can no longer buy a copy of the popular L0phtcrack password cracking tool.

However there are alternatives. As I wrote in Security UPDATE Newsletter, another tool, LCP, performs the same functions. The tool, developed by a Russian programmer, is available freely on the Web .

If you missed my editorial, "Password Cracking Made Easy," then you can read it on our Web site to learn about other tools you might use to test password strength and recover unknown passwords.