Update: Norwegian library puts out call for cyberlocksmiths

Computerworld - Kirsti Langstoyl has a data recovery problem that might require a seance to solve. But she'll take a good IT professional with a knack for data recovery.
And now there's even a reward of sorts for anyone who manages to solve her problem.
Langstoyl, librarian at the Ivar Aasen Centre for New Norwegian Culture in Oresta, Norway, is trying to unlock a database that has been closed for about nine years since the death of the man who compiled it.
The 2-year-old center is only now trying to sort through the database of more than 14,000 books and magazines written in New Norwegian. Langstoyl has dBase disks that can tell her what is in the database, but she doesn't know the password to gain access. Wolf Djupedal, who created the database, died without ever writing down the password.
Without the password, the only way Langstoyl figures she can solve the problem is to recatalog the collection and rebuild the database herself.
Before doing that, though, the library today put out a cybercall for help, adding a link on its Web site to the files it needs to get into. As an incentive, it's offering a reward of a free trip to the New Norwegian festival in Oresta to the first person who can open the files. Of course, if you live outside of Norway, you will have to get there on your own.
"The thing is, we have had about 80 e-mails and phone calls from all over Norway, mostly from people who work in small businesses, some private persons, that are interested in computing and want to try to solve our problem," Langstoyl said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It is more difficult than we thought."
The loss of a password through the death of the user isn't that uncommon, said Steve Weiss, president of Password Crackers Inc. in North Potomac, Md., a company of cyberlocksmiths who crack password-protected files and systems. Usually, Weiss gets calls from companies that need his help because of a disgruntled employee who left the company and refused to reveal passwords for protected data.
"That is most of what we get," Weiss said. "Death is rarely the cause, although, we did have a network administrator hit by bus."
Another cause is illness, said Steve Lewis, editor of the Disaster Recovery Yellow Pages, published by Systems Audit Group Inc. in Newton, Mass.
Lewis said he once helped on a job for a small bank north of Boston whose vice president of marketing was struck down