Skip to main content

Thoughts on Passwords

Passwords are the key to internet security.  People need one to log into their bank, their email, their computer, their phone, any website where they can buy things and any website where companies want to track them.  Email address and password is the standard to get access and it is useless.  It is useless because emails are public.  Everyone knows everyones email address.  Any app, like Facebook, has access to the contact list, so it knows all a person's friends emails.  Passwords are difficult to remember, difficult to create and so people just use something simple or use the same password everywhere.

Many websites give requirements for passwords, like “1 capital letter and 1 number and 1 symbol,” so people take normal dictionary words and remace letters with numbers and then promptly forget what they created.  Companies have to store passwords somewhere and when they are hacked,  and some Russian gets 2 million user names, passwords and credit card numbers from Home Depot or Target or some other company that is more interested in selling things than security.  If a person uses the same password everywhere then the person who hacked Home Depot can now get into that person’s bank account.

Biometrics are a different way to improve the passwords system.  On phones and computers, people can unlock their devices with a thumb or finger print.  People joke that all a hacker has to do it cut off your finger.  Retina scans are coming and Apple claims to have a “face recognician” system that is unbeatable.  We will see.

Two-factor or two-part authetication is also a security measure.  With two-factor a person uses something they know and something they have.  For example, logging in with two-factor to a bank’s website means that the user enters their email and password (somthing they know).  The bank then texts them a series of digits that they must enter (something they have).  So a hacker must know a person’s user name and password and have their phone.  This makes it more difficult since hackers cannot get all this information by hacking the bank’s website.

Steve Gibson is working on a new login procedure called SQRL, which relies on QR codes for logging into sites.  It claims to be the most secure login out there.  Of course banks and stores must use this system and rewrite their login procedures on their website for this to work.  At least people are thinking about this and trying to improve the system.

If it is online, it will be hacked, spied on, confiscted and searched, wether by evil hackers, or the government.  Anything that is stored online must be secure in both encryption and in standing against government intrusion.  Email and password logins are antiquated, unsecured and dangerous.  Two-factor systems add a level of security but are cumbersom.  Password managers like 1Password and LastPass generate and store very long, comlicated passwords, but that just means they cannot be guessed.  They can still be hacked.  We are a long way from a secure internet, so be very careful what you store in the cloud.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cornerstone Fellowship

Cornerstone Fellowship started preaching truth in 1946, right after WW II.  It has been a light in a changing community and a changing world for the past 70 years.  Currently I am the pastor of Cornerstone.  My name is Michael L. Wilson.  It is my goal to preach truth and to explain truth to all who attend.   We subscribe to the reformed view of Christianity which includes the  Five Solas , or the five foundational "only" beliefs.   If you are looking for a Christ Centered church, let me recommend  Cornerstone Fellowship

Thoughts on “agnostic”

Prior to being a pastor I was a believer in Jesus Christ.  I was raised in church and sought out a church every Sunday no matter where I was.  In other words, I consider myself a true believer in Jesus Christ and the Christian religion.  I am an exception in today’s society.  People who are willing to stand up and state that they are basing their lives on the teaching of Jesus Christ is rare. Many years ago, when I was a computer programmer, I worked with all sorts of people.  Buddhists and Hindus and even some Christians.  Most of the tech crowd were what I would call “casual atheists.”  This means that they never gave church or the Bible a second thought.  They go through life and never think about God.  If asked, many would say they believe in God, probably because they were taken to church as a child.  But any definition of this God could not be given by most of these people. One person I meant actually called himself an agnostic...

Cornerstone Fellowship 5/6/18 **Psalm 17** Rev. Michael L. Wilson