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Everything You Know About Password-Stealing Is Wrong

Posted by timothy on from the but-password-stealing-is-wrong dept.

isoloisti writes "An article by some Microsofties in the latest issue of Computing Now magazine claims we have got passwords all wrong. When money is stolen, consumers are reimbursed for stolen funds and it is money mules, not banks or retail customers, who end up with the loss. Stealing passwords is easy, but getting money out is very hard. Passwords are not the bottleneck in cyber-crime and replacing them with something stronger won't reduce losses. The article concludes that banks have no interest in shifting liability to consumers, and that the switch to financially-motivated cyber-crime is good news, not bad. Article is online at computer.org site (hard-to-read multipage format) or as PDF from Microsoft Research."

4 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Banking passwords are overrated by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Funny

    It puzzles me when I see that people work really hard to come up with difficult passwords for their bank accounts

    And do you see people coming up with such passwords often?

    Most online banking systems intentionally do not even give full account or routing numbers to logged in users, and I've never seen one give out SSN or DOB either.

    Hmm... you're familiar with most banking online systems?

    You almost had me convinced to make a super easy bank password. Nice try, identity thief!

  2. Re:Banking passwords are overrated by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 3, Funny

    yeah, the guy stealing your money would totally balk at spending $50 bucks of your money to do that ;-)

    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  3. No, STEALING, is wrong. by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's wrong terminology! Passwords are not Stolen!

    Look, if you have a car and I steal that car then you don't have a car anymore.
    If you have a password, and I get a copy of it, then you still have your password! We can both use the password, IT'S NOT STEALING.

  4. Re:It's really even worse than that by mlts · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mattresses seem to be the banking instrument of the future:

    1: No overdraft fees.
    2: No fees on withdrawals.
    3: No fees due to having a balance under x amount.
    4: Accessible 24/7, not just "banker's hours".
    5: No need to worry about a username/password.
    6: No ID theft can slurp your balance dry.
    7: Assets can only be frozen if your heater fails.
    8: Interest rate is about the same as most CDs.
    9: Computer glitches won't make the balance disappear.
    10: No need to give all your personal info when starting a new account.