Password sharing as a sign of trust?

[theriver]

I was sent this link recently:

 

danah boyd | apophenia » How Parents Normalized Teen Password Sharing

 

which claims data to show that 1 in 3 US teenagers share their passwords.

 

If this really is normalised, as is claimed, then clearly telling people "don't tell anyone your password" doesn't work, and this is an issue that has to be acknowledged.

Edited January 31, 2012 by theriver
To clarify that it's a US study

[Dazzle]

Your be very surprised what passwords people will share these days............A few months back I was looking around Facebook and this one kid had his wall open and on it was his MyMaths school passwords. He posted them in a status to get people to log into his account and do his home work for him.

[tom_newton]

It cannot and must not become normalised. Passwords currently account for the majority of auth on the internet - ok, some systems allow 2fac these days but few kids use that - even if we did think it's "ok" for facebook, it sets a terrible precedent for banking etc.

 

There is no way we as IT professionals can accept this - normally i'm all for putting the user and their foibles at #1, but this is a step too far.

[FN-GM]

Your be very surprised what passwords people will share these days............A few months back I was looking around Facebook and this one kid had his wall open and on it was his MyMaths school passwords. He posted them in a status to get people to log into his account and do his home work for him.

 

I thought mymaths was a generic password for the whole school anyway?

[elsiegee40]

After an incident outside school to do with a youngster using Dad's password, I did a session with Years 5&6 about passwords and PINs.

 

About 60% knew their parents' PIN. A similar number used their parents card or PayPal to shop online without the parent present... The most common reason they knew was because their parents had let them use the cash machine and many of them said it was the same as the burglar alarm code... and the Sky parental control PIN

 

Nearly all of them knew their parents' password "because they only use 1"

 

* sigh*

[FN-GM]

Its a good reason for the use of Two-Factor Authentication. The company i work for use RSA tokens for logons. Each person has one and the number changes every minute. If someone shares the number it will be useless within the minute.

[Dazzle]

I thought mymaths was a generic password for the whole school anyway?

 

I am not sure I just happen to see it posted on this kids wall while I was looking around Facebook one day. In the status was something along the lines of "someone do my homework on mymaths" followed by all his usernames and passwords for the site.

[chrisredfield93]

Of course it's a sign of trust how many people give their partners their password to the emails facebook bank accounts and how many have a shared account even thou they say it for one person only ?

 

My partner give me all their password and stuff but I never used it since it not my place or any of my business but she dont know my password I might leave my self login but that happens rarely

[tom_newton]

Its a constant source of annoyance to the wife that i won't share passwords. Its for her own good

TBh I know there's one or two she knows, and i don't intend to change them, but the main ones, I wouldn't want to. Its just not cricket

[laserblazer]

I share banking passwords with the wife. If one of us got knocked down by a bus and all that. I also know her email password, simply because she is incapable of logging on herself.

[PICNIC]

I thought mymaths was a generic password for the whole school anyway?

 

The school has a generic login, but if teachers set homework assignments and the like, they can input class details (just name and class name) and it generates individual logins for each student (my wife is a maths teacher and she swears by the site).

[witch]

I do understand the issue about using the same password for everything but when I counted all the on-line things that I need a password for that might be problematic (not just logging onto forums etc) I need ten and it is very difficult to remember ten different passwords. I tend to use variations on a theme but have been caught out several times getting them wrong and being locked out of the account

[X-13]

Your be very surprised what passwords people will share these days............A few months back I was looking around Facebook and this one kid had his wall open and on it was his MyMaths school passwords. He posted them in a status to get people to log into his account and do his home work for him.

 

He's not the first one to try that.

[JJonas]

I am not sure I just happen to see it posted on this kids wall while I was looking around Facebook one day. In the status was something along the lines of "someone do my homework on mymaths" followed by all his usernames and passwords for the site.

 

I do hope you logged in and did his homework for him, but made sure every answer was wrong so he got extra maths lessons.

[ChrisJ]

When I was living with my ex she had my banking password, but no others. Changed it when we ended.

 

We just had an issue here in school with a group of girls sharing each others passwords on a site called Stardoll where one girl had been sending nasty messages from another girls account to make her look bad.

 

I could this sort of thing becoming a common scene if people aren't protective of their passwords.

 

Also it turned out one of them had created multiple fake accounts to post positive messages about herself to make her look more popular.

[DT2]

I used to use NSPASSGEN on an old mobile, it was great. It generated random passwords, and stored them all, and allowed you to encrypt them with a master password for the program. providing you didn't forget it or share it, it was a good system. I have around 20 different accounts in various places, but mostly I remember them, and have never had trouble doing so. I think using biometrics is a good idea, fingerprint scanners etc.

 

DT

[X-13]

We just had an issue here in school with a group of girls sharing each others passwords on a site called Stardoll where one girl had been sending nasty messages from another girls account to make her look bad.

 

 

Also it turned out one of them had created multiple fake accounts to post positive messages about herself to make her look more popular.

 

Why does this not surprise me?

 

 

I used to use NSPASSGEN on an old mobile, it was great. It generated random passwords, and stored them all, and allowed you to encrypt them with a master password for the program. providing you didn't forget it or share it, it was a good system. I have around 20 different accounts in various places, but mostly I remember them, and have never had trouble doing so. I think using biometrics is a good idea, fingerprint scanners etc.

 

DT

 

Lasspass for me. [+Rep for whoever it was who suggested it...]

[sonofsanta]

This is why I love LastPass so much. I don't even know my passwords now, so I have no way of sharing them. S'brilliant.

 

It constantly frustrates me that the majority of the users don't see a password as protection, as a layer of security ensuring their privacy, but instead see it as some kind of unsolved problem in computing, this massive inconvenience that one day will be swept away by some brilliant developer. We've solved parallel computing, we've solved massive heterogenous communication, but passwords are still too complicated for us to get rid of. The day when we no longer need them will be the true singularity, clearly.

 

[X-13]

The day when we no longer need [passwords] will be the true singularity, clearly.

 

We would have either reached a level of open trustworthyness that would require security a waste of resources, or all input devices sample DNA/fingerprints/full body scans and THAT'S your username/password.

 

[sonofsanta]

We would have either reached a level of open trustworthyness that would require security a waste of resources, or all input devices sample DNA/fingerprints/full body scans and THAT'S your username/password.

 

But then we'll all be running round jealously guarding our last remaining finger, as we'll have chopped the rest off to send to Nigeria to assist in the transfer of that 27 million USD that an uncle I never knew I had stole from Iraq in the Second Gulf War. So then we'll go back to passwords to keep it safe except we'll only have one finger to type with, and it'll be all the easier to steal it looking over our shoulders.

 

The only true safe way forward is to burn the machines and retrain as mentats.

[elsiegee40]

I do understand the issue about using the same password for everything but when I counted all the on-line things that I need a password for that might be problematic (not just logging onto forums etc) I need ten and it is very difficult to remember ten different passwords. I tend to use variations on a theme but have been caught out several times getting them wrong and being locked out of the account

I use a range of passwords and variants on the theme... the base for the theme is different at school, so I can keep those separate. As for remembering anyone else's ... no chance. I have too many of my own

 

I'm intending to start using Lastpass

[X-13]

But then we'll all be running round jealously guarding our last remaining finger, as we'll have chopped the rest off to send to Nigeria to assist in the transfer of that 27 million USD that an uncle I never knew I had stole from Iraq in the Second Gulf War. So then we'll go back to passwords to keep it safe except we'll only have one finger to type with, and it'll be all the easier to steal it looking over our shoulders.

 

The only true safe way forward is to burn the machines and retrain as mentats.

 

 

Forget that. Develop AI, give it a way to see, let it learn what you look like [Like a person would], auto-auth because your computer knows it's you.

 

Also, teach it to tell the difference between a photo/video and a real person.

 

No more "send us you password" scams. No more keylogging. No problems. [except skynet... Thats ALWAYS a possible problem.]

[sonofsanta]

Forget that. Develop AI, give it a way to see, let it learn what you look like [Like a person would], auto-auth because your computer knows it's you.

 

Also, teach it to tell the difference between a photo/video and a real person.

 

Isn't Windows 8 meant to be implementing something like that anyway?

 

(and I think I remember, possibly apocryphally, that Kinect does something like that as well. But I've not wasted the money on one, so couldn't say)

[X-13]

Isn't Windows 8 meant to be implementing something like that anyway?

 

(and I think I remember, possibly apocryphally, that Kinect does something like that as well. But I've not wasted the money on one, so couldn't say)

 

 

 

"It scans his face and logs him in. Finally, when Amish gets up and leaves, his PC notices that he's gone and locks itself and powers down."

 

WTF COMPUTER?! I needed to go to the toilet! You didn't even save my [insane length] report!

 

 

Isn't it currently fooled by pictures?

 

 

Also, OMG that link gave me so many pop-ups!

[jpaterson]

I do understand the issue about using the same password for everything but when I counted all the on-line things that I need a password for that might be problematic (not just logging onto forums etc) I need ten and it is very difficult to remember ten different passwords. I tend to use variations on a theme but have been caught out several times getting them wrong and being locked out of the account

 

This might help you...

 

Your PasswordCard - 75,388 printed so far!

 

Trying to promote it as a password tool with teh staff at the school. Mixed uptake. My wife uses one, and swears by it.

 

You can also get an Android and iPhone app for it.

 

Its a smart idea IMHO.