The Problem with Using the Same Password Everywhere, Illustrated

[Ande]

Unless you have an unusually large amount of overdraft protection they can access.

Nope. and that can have the $25.00, caus that's all I got left until Next Wednesday.
Seriously, I change my bank password monthly.

[safeguy]

In relation to the topic, may I suggest you guys take a look at these:

MAKE your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months.

These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t.

Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats.

Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.

“Keeping a keylogger off your machine is about a trillion times more important than the strength of any one of your passwords,” says Cormac Herley, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research who specializes in security-related topics. He said antivirus software could detect and block many kinds of keyloggers, but “there’s no guarantee that it gets everything.”

A Strong Password Isn’t the Strongest Security

Now, a study has concluded what lots of us have long suspected: Many of these irritating security measures are a waste of time. The study, by a top researcher at Microsoft, found that instructions intended to spare us from costly computer attacks often exact a much steeper price in the form of user effort and time expended.

“Most security advice simply offers a poor cost-benefit trade-off to users,” wrote its author, Cormac Herley, a principal researcher for Microsoft Research.

Particularly dubious are the standard rules for creating and protecting website passwords, Herley found. For example, users are admonished to change passwords regularly, but redoing them is not an effective preventive step against online infiltration unless the cyber attacker (or evil colleague) who steals your sign-in sequence waits to employ it until after you’ve switched to a new one, Herley wrote. That’s about as likely as a crook lifting a house key and then waiting until the lock is changed before sticking it in the door.

Herley also looked at the validity of other advice for blocking security threats, including ways to recognize phishing e-mails (phony messages aimed at getting recipients to give up personal information such as credit card numbers) and how to deal with certificate errors, those impossible-to-fathom warning messages. As with passwords, the benefits of these procedures are usually outweighed by what users must do to carry them out, he said.

Please do not change your password

Anyone has anything to say to that?

[JayCub]

It's true. My bank no longer trusts me. I not only have to give my password, but answer revolving questions about my life and history.
Someone who want to study me that well is entitled to my $25.00.

How about a loan
I don't know too many people that bank online here, foolish when it's about 15 min away for most and fast service, every bank has a pub within 20ft.. This is the irish way..

[Ande]

How about a loan
I don't know too many people that bank online here, foolish when it's about 15 min away for most and fast service, every bank has a pub within 20ft.. This is the irish way..

I can afford $5 this month. Will it help?
Seriously, with direct deposit and stamps being $.44, it is economical to pay bills from either the biller's site or your bank's site. As long as no-one is charging for this, it's great. I'd be going through $20/month in stamps each month if I paid by mail.
I buy by the case and there's always cold ones in the downstairs refrigerator.

[johnshaw1917]

I don't know too many people that bank online here, foolish when it's about 15 min away for most and fast service, every bank has a pub within 20ft.. This is the irish way..

It's a half hour drive for me, so I take full advantage of it. Doesn't cost anything extra, so why not.

---------- Post added at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

Anyone has anything to say to that?

Nothing can replace using good old commonsense. Banks can't protect you, if you don't take proper security measures of your own. When banks try, it will always fail and makes their services that much harder to use.

[JayCub]

I can afford $5 this month. Will it help?
Seriously, with direct deposit and stamps being $.44, it is economical to pay bills from either the biller's site or your bank's site. As long as no-one is charging for this, it's great. I'd be going through $20/month in stamps each month if I paid by mail.
I buy by the case and there's always cold ones in the downstairs refrigerator.

Not to worry about the loan Ande i hear INRANIL is loaded, Most bills are paid direct debit, thankfully and little interaction with the bank, although they where trying hard to push for online banking at one point, i told them i didn't trust the idea, probably a hidden charge somewhere.

[Ceyfer √]

remember the twitter hacking incident, anyone?