Internet
Back in 2009, threat actors hacked into the website servers of social app RockYou, accessing over 32 million user passwords stored in plaintext. Now, in what appears to be the largest data breach in history, attackers have ...
Security
Got too many passwords to remember? Just wait. It's going to get a lot worse.
Dec 16, 2018
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47
Internet
Some commercial password managers may be vulnerable to cyber-attack by fake apps, new research suggests.
Mar 16, 2020
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161
Security
Computer security experts have developed a system capable of guessing computer and smartphone users' passwords in seconds by analyzing the traces of heat their fingertips leave on keyboards and screens.
Oct 10, 2022
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695
Security
After nearly a decade of studies, the passwords research group in Carnegie Mellon's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute has developed a policy for creating passwords that maintains balance between security and usability—one ...
Oct 21, 2020
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153
Security
Is this a dream or an answer to yours? Is Google really set to kill the password on Android—in 2016? Wait, that is this year. The headlines are not a dream. Google is to ditch passwords in favor of a biometrics means for ...
Consumer & Gadgets
Back in 2013, Regina Dugan, the former DARPA head, and leading special projects for the Google-owned Motorola, showed electronic tattoos as one password authentication sign of the future.
Internet
Research from James Cook University shows increasingly complex website password restrictions often leave users frustrated and lead to poor password security.
May 7, 2021
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55
Security
(Tech Xplore)—University of Cambridge computer scientist Sergei Skorobogatov has figured out a way to gain access to an Apple iPhone 5c without having its password. He has written a paper outlining the technique, which ...
Security
When the unhackable turns hackable you know there will be lots of noise. Case in point: The eyeDisk USB flash drive. Passwords exposed in clear text were discovered.
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource (example: an access code is a type of password). The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access.
The use of passwords is known to be ancient. Sentries would challenge those wishing to enter an area or approaching it to supply a password or watchword. Sentries would only allow a person or group to pass if they knew the password. In modern times, user names and passwords are commonly used by people during a log in process that controls access to protected computer operating systems, mobile phones, cable TV decoders, automated teller machines (ATMs), etc. A typical computer user may require passwords for many purposes: logging in to computer accounts, retrieving e-mail from servers, accessing programs, databases, networks, web sites, and even reading the morning newspaper online.
Despite the name, there is no need for passwords to be actual words; indeed passwords which are not actual words may be harder to guess, a desirable property. Some passwords are formed from multiple words and may more accurately be called a passphrase. The term passcode is sometimes used when the secret information is purely numeric, such as the personal identification number (PIN) commonly used for ATM access. Passwords are generally short enough to be easily memorized and typed.
For the purposes of more compellingly authenticating the identity of one computing device to another, passwords have significant disadvantages (they may be stolen, spoofed, forgotten, etc.) over authentications systems relying on cryptographic protocols, which are more difficult to circumvent.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
