Passwords “are starting to fail us”, says PayPal security chief

Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by SweX, May 11, 2013.

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  1. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/...arting-to-fail-us-says-paypal-security-chief/
     
  2. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    So if passwords are failing, why does he go on to say what should be known, that passwords haven't themselves failed, people are just stupid? That's the answer right there. Lots of technologies and things in general are fine until people as a whole get a hold of them. It isn't the fault of the password if some idiot uses the name of their cat or rolls their face across the keyboard. There aren't any financially feasible or easier ways, there are no safer, more secure ways that won't end up costing something else like privacy and the industry knows it.

    Hell, many breaches don't occur because of bad passwords, but because of badly secured databases and websites. Otherwise, pray tell how the hackers get a hold of these password databases to copy. I've heard this same song and dance from more than just this guy, and every leader of the known world could get on TV and repeat it and it would still be bull.
     
  3. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    I have rarely seen such a collection of inept ideas in such a short article.
     
  4. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    Yeah, it's a bunch of crap. But it's from..*chuckle*..Paypal security. Surely their expertise is invaluable. Of course passwords IT departments consider strong are vulnerable. A good portion of them use the same damned idiotic password naming. I've also noticed that a lot of "warning" articles in the last couple of years have made it a point to use "90%". Hooray for reaching deep into your rectum and pulling numbers out. I don't even take that percentage seriously anymore or those who throw it around. Passwords impeding the development of the internet, huh? Oh yes, out of all the things slowing down progress, passwords are the biggest threat :rolleyes:

    Why are people like this given these kinds of jobs in companies?
     
  5. aztony

    aztony Registered Member

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    It's no longer about what you know, but who you know.
     
  6. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    There has never been a time when that didn't apply to an extent.
     
  7. SirDrexl

    SirDrexl Registered Member

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    I think this is the key part of the article:

    Obviously it's in his best interest to talk down the strength of passwords.
     
  8. J_L

    J_L Registered Member

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    I don't know what to say, other than I wonder if my comment will pass moderation. It includes ~ Snipped as per TOS ~, selling his ideas, GTFO, incompetent fool, and you can't fix stupid like this, all directed at Mr. Barrett.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2013
  9. Mman79

    Mman79 Registered Member

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    I knew JR was on the way :D But yeah, I completely agree with you, JL. This FIDO group has decent enough intentions, but you know what the road to Hell is paved with. Plus, none of their suggestions so far are feasible nor worth the cost and hassle for neither websites nor users.
     
  10. wat0114

    wat0114 Registered Member

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    They look like outright lies to me.
     
  11. TheWindBringeth

    TheWindBringeth Registered Member

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    Regardless of how flawed their arguments may be, the fact remains that numerous powerful corporations are banding together in an effort to design a new global, Internet-centric, system for login/authentication. This could have, over time, significant consequences for us all. Not only is there potential for security weaknesses, there is potential for *catastrophic* privacy consequences.

    Imagine, for a moment, if the system actually did become a very widely supported standard... all the major sites we visit use it... and its operation revolved around a globally unique, device hardware embedded (or derived) token that would be passed to all of those sites where you create an account. Theoretically, said token could even be passed to those sites you merely visit. Such a token would be akin to a cross-site hardware cookie... all sites would see the same globally unique ID (regardless of how you connected to the site, for example via VPN) and that would make tracking, correlating activity across sites, exchanging/linking personal information to that activity, etc extremely trivial. You could even call that an automatic by-product of the system's design. A generally unnecessary one from the security POV I would say, but a very highly desirable consequence from the POV of companies *wanting* to do such things.

    The FIDO Alliance has a website (http://www.fidoalliance.org/) which includes some overview material: http://www.fidoalliance.org/how-it-works.html. I see some red flags. Do you? Has anyone come across more detailed information to help assess this thing?
     
  12. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    More about this here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/paypal-exec-aims-to-obliterate-passwords-from-the-face-of-the-planet/

    From the article:
    Can someone explain me how is this different than two-factor authentication that is implemented now? :rolleyes:
     
  13. SirDrexl

    SirDrexl Registered Member

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    What's different is how they want to make it a unified standard, with many sites using the same system of authentication. The way it is now, only a handful of sites use 2FA, and they have different systems so it's not all tied together.
     
  14. TheWindBringeth

    TheWindBringeth Registered Member

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    Various systems already exist, but lets focus on the common man case for a second...

    - Baseline security involves "something you know", namely a password that gets sent to the website for validation.
    - Enhanced security comes via "something you have", such as a phone that can receive a special code.

    It looks to me as though the FIDO system basically reverses that to be...

    - Baseline security involves "something you have", namely a hardware embedded/derived "token" and information from that ("a globally unique token id and a user identifier") are sent to the website for validation.
    - Enhanced security come via "something you know" (password) or "something you are" (biometric) and these are supposedly only used locally to unlock the token so that its information can be sent to the website.

    Edit: There is more to it than that, so do read what you can at the FIDO website, etc.
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2013
  15. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Ignore and move on. Any article that starts with X, Y of company Z is useless.
    If it has money involved, be sure it's going to taste of brown matter.
    Mrk
     
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