Proper Password Procedures

We reveal the shady password practices that are all too common at many utility providers, and hash out why salts are essential to proper password storage.

Plus the benefits of passphrases, and what you can do to keep your local providers on the up and up.

• Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain text | Ars Technica — In September of 2018, an anonymous independent security researcher (who we'll call X) noticed that their power company's website was offering to email—not reset!—lost account passwords to forgetful users. Startled, X fed the online form the utility account number and the last four phone number digits it was asking for. Sure enough, a few minutes later the account password, in plain text, was sitting in X's inbox.
• The LinkedIn Hack: Understanding Why It Was So Easy to Crack the Passwords | — LinkedIn stated that after the initial 2012 breach, they added enhanced protection, most likely adding the “salt” functionality to their passwords. However, if you have not changed your password since 2012, you do not have the added protection of a salted password hash. You may be asking yourself–what on earth are hashing and salting and how does this all work?
• How Developers got Password Security so Wrong — As time has gone on; developers have continued to store passwords insecurely, and users have continued to set them weakly. Despite this, no viable alternative has been created for password security.
• Adding Salt to Hashing: A Better Way to Store Passwords — A salt is added to the hashing process to force their uniqueness, increase their complexity without increasing user requirements, and to mitigate password attacks like rainbow tables.
• Why Do Developers Get Password Storage Wrong? A Qualitative Usability Study — We were interested in exploring two particular aspects: Firstly, do developers get things wrong because they do not think about security and thus do not include security features (but could if they wanted to)? Or do they write insecure code because the complexity of the task is too great for them? Secondly, a common suggestion to increase security is to offer secure defaults.
• OWASP Password Storage Cheatsheet — This article provides guidance on properly storing passwords, secret question responses, and similar credential information.
• Secure Salted Password Hashing - How to do it Properly — If you're a web developer, you've probably had to make a user account system. The most important aspect of a user account system is how user passwords are protected. User account databases are hacked frequently, so you absolutely must do something to protect your users' passwords if your website is ever breached. The best way to protect passwords is to employ salted password hashing. This page will explain why it's done the way it is.
• Plain Text Offenders — We’re tired of websites abusing our trust and storing our passwords in plain text, exposing us to danger. Here we put websites we believe to be practicing this to shame.
• Cybersecurity 101: Why you need to use a password manager | TechCrunch — Think of a password manager like a book of your passwords, locked by a master key that only you know.
• On the Security of Password Managers - Schneier on Security — There's new research on the security of password managers, specifically 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass, and Lastpass. This work specifically looks at password leakage on the host computer. That is, does the password manager accidentally leave plaintext copies of the password lying around memory?
• LinuxFest Northwest 2019 — It's the 20th anniversary of LinuxFest Northwest! Come join your favorite Jupiter Broadcasting hosts at the Pacific Northwest's premier Linux event.
• SCALE 17x — The 17th annual Southern California Linux Expo – will take place on March. 7-10, 2019, at the Pasadena Convention Center. SCaLE 17x expects to host 150 exhibitors this year, along with nearly 130 sessions, tutorials and special events.
• Jupiter Broadcasting Meetups — The best place to find out when Jupiter Broadcasting has a meetup near you! Also stay tuned for upcoming virtual study groups.