PASSWORDS

Can I get a little Salt with that Algorithm and Database?

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders.  Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo declined to comment on whether or not they had received requests, Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast did not respond to queries.

Some of the government orders demand not only a user's password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.  C/Net 

And you thought they were just listening to your phone calls and reading your email.