Twitter has apparently fallen foul of a phishing attack, alerting some users to reset their passwords and urging them to choose hard to guess passwords using a mix of words, numbers and symbols.
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Passwords are an obvious security weakness in any system. They are so hard to remember, that of course people will use obvious words or numbers and re-use them across many sites. Or just as bad, write them down on a Post-it and stick it on their desk or laptop.
Stephen Hower, CEO of GrIDsure, points out that this method of security is flawed: “The owners of these sites have chosen this method of authentication in the misguided view that it is cheap and offers a good level of security. In reality, it is neither. As we’ve seen, passwords can be compromised through various forms of attack, including shoulder-surfing, key-logging and screen-scraping.”
As a purveyor of alternatives to PINS and passwords, Hower clearly has a vested interest in highlighting the flaws of the user name/passwords combo, but he has a point. Why does the user name/password combo remain so prevalent, when this method of authentication is insecure?
