Password protection: Top 10 websites offer users little or no help
Leading websites such as Amazon and Wikipedia are failing to help their users adequately protect their data, say security researchers at the University of Plymouth . They've taken a closer look at the password practices of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Microsoft and other major web companies.
According to this, most of the portals listed in the top 10 still offer little or no help in creating secure passwords, even more than ten years after the first review.
Disappointing overall picture
“We keep hearing that passwords will soon be a thing of the past,”
explains Steve Furnell, head of the Center for Security, Communications and Network Research at the University of Plymouth. Despite the promise that new technologies will follow, they are still the predominantly predominant protective measure when creating online accounts.
“One would actually think that in times like these, when the protection of personal data is becoming increasingly important, it should also be fundamentally important to provide clear and timely instructions and advice,”
emphasizes the scientist.
“We have been studying these things for more than ten years and it is very disappointing to see that the overall picture in 2018 is still the same as in 2007,”
Furnell clarifies. In the intervening years, problems and errors in dealing with passwords have been reported very often and in detail.
“But no great effort has been made to encourage and challenge us to take the right path,”
criticizes the expert.
“Password” as password
For their analysis, Furnell and his team looked closely at the practices that providers like Google and Co use when creating new user accounts or resetting passwords.
"Some still allow 'Password' to be used as a password, or to enter relatively simple terms and names such as last name or username,"
describes Furnell.
In a comparison of the various Internet companies, Google, Microsoft Live and Yahoo performed best. At the lower end of the scale are Amazon, Reddit and Wikipedia.
“Amazon’s password requirements remain the most liberal of all, as has been the case in our previous research,”
is it [called.
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