Password has been here since the time of the invention of computers, they allow us to log in to services, and sometimes it’s the passwords that protect our personal messages online and our money. How safe is your password? This has been a first world problem since the invention of passwords itself. From plain text passwords to encrypted passwords, from protecting access to our computers to controlling everything we do on the internet passwords have come a long way but the question has remained for all this time. How secure your password?
Back then the only use of a password for most people were logging in to their computers. However now most people use the internet passwords are the gate keepers in what they do on the internet. However most people that use the internet now are not just the tech savvy people and many problems have risen.
- The passwords that people use are too weak, and the technology in cracking passwords have improved in time. Most people don’t know what makes a good password. And now it takes only few minutes-hours to crack even the best passwords.
- People use the same password over different services on the web, this is something even the tech savvy people do, because coming up with good password and remembering them is tough. However this means one compromised password will lead to all your online accounts being hacked.
- More and more online services are being compromised everyday, making nothing is secure on the internet. And sometimes even the best secured places gets hacked. Anyone remember lulzec?
And sometimes logging in with a password is a pain, anyway people have been trying to find out different ways to replace or improve the way people log in using passwords. One way is two factor authentication, Google and Facebook are two big services that encourage users to use it. This means after you enter a password you get a separate randomly generated code to your phone which you've to enter before you can log in to the services. This means a hacker can’t access your account even they have the password. This sounds good but there is a catch to it. Sometimes it takes hours to get the authentication code sms or if your phone’s battery is dead there is no way you can access your account.
Sometimes some services don’t ask from a password, they only need your email. To log in you have to enter your email where you’ll get a login email with a link which you've to click to log in. This is not that popular because you have to log-in to your email account and also emails are an unpopular thing among youngsters these days. Plus not to mentioned smart password cracking technology and social engineering has made passwords useless.
But still no one has ever found a good answer in solving this problem, even Apple’s use of fingerprint to unlock the iPhone has been compromised as hackers finally found the way to crack it. But all is not lost yet, Google has tried to use a wearable device like a ring to replace passwords.
While others are trying to find different ways to solve this problem the problem remains still yet to be solved. If someone wants to build something like that it should be,
- Secure, it should be hard for people to crack, or if it’s physical then if should be secure enough to prevent unauthorized access even if someone else gets their hands on device/service.
- It should be free and easy enough to be used by everyone. Although most people use weak passwords, passwords are still easy enough to be used by everyone and it doesn't cost a thing. The new technology/service should be easy and free/less-costly.
- It should be less annoying or seamless. It has to be less annoying than the two factor authentication that’s out there.
- It should be easy/good enough to be used by different platforms, browsers and different websites.
Got an idea to solve this problem? Then try to solve it, although easy at it seem its not.
