It Might Not Help To Have Workers Change Passwords
Most office drones have had to deal with a job that requires them to keep changing their passwords like clockwork, maybe every six months or so. The longstanding IT security practice is based on the idea that flushing out old passwords will cut off access for bad guys who may have figured them out. But according to the Federal Trade Commission’s chief technologist, Lorrie Cranor, the strategy has some major holes. “Unless there is...
Experts: Fingerprint as Password Is a Bad Idea
Ever since Apple introduced TouchID for iPhones, more and more smartphones feature fingerprint scanners. And that has some security researchers worried. “If you leak a password, you can just change it; if you leak a fingerprint, it’s lost for your whole life,” FireEye researcher Yulong Zhang said at a presentation at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas last week. Zhang was part of a team that revealed that several Android...
Woes of Password Protection
Pittsburgh — High on the White House’s hit list: The series of letters, numbers and symbols you type in when you access everything from your bank account to your Netflix list. “Kill the password dead as a primary security measure,” urged Michael Daniel, the president’s cybersecurity coordinator, at the International Conference on Cyber Engagement, held recently at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. As more and more devices...
