The age of passwords is over. That’s the claim made in this month’s “Wired” magazine. Most of us trust that a string of letters, numbers and characters is enough to protect our bank accounts, email and credit cards. But hackers are breaking into computer systems and hosts of user names and passwords on the Web with increasing regularity. And because so much of our personal information is stored in the cloud, hackers can trick customer service agents into resetting passwords. Some Internet companies say the trade-offs — convenience and privacy –- are necessary to protect our data. Privacy advocates say that price is too high. Diane and her guests discuss the illusion of online security and whether you can make your accounts harder to crack.
Guests
Simon Davies founder of Privacy International.
Cecilia Kang technology reporter for the Washington Post.
Kevin Mitnick information security expert and former hacker.
via The Illusion Of Online Security | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR.
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Thanks for the article. We all need to be more proactive about our personal account security. I agree that passwords should be a thing of the past. The fact that we are still living in a password ruled world is frustrating. Almost everything is still only password protected. But ultimately the fact is passwords (strong or not) do not replace the need for other effective security control. The only real solution is to add additional layers of authentication for access and transaction verification without unreasonable complexity and this will of help to their customers if they implement some form of a two-step or two-factor authentication were you can telesign into your account and have the security knowing you are protected if your password were to be stolen. This should be a prerequisite to any system that wants to promote itself as being secure. With this if they were to try to use the “stolen” password and don’t have your phone nor are on the computer, smartphone or tablet you have designated trusted, they would not be able to enter the account.