

In the unlikely event that a hacking crew cracks your password manager, you’re in trouble. Using a password manager has one intrinsic risk-you’ve put all your eggs in one basket.

“But a separate camp bet on passwords multiplying, not going away.” He took a deep dive into the evolution of password managers, along with events like Microsoft’s 2006 release of CardSpace intended to end passwords (it didn’t), and its declaration that Windows 10 meant the end of passwords (it didn’t). “Microsoft spoke of eradicating passwords, as if they were a disease, like smallpox,” said Schechter. Schechter harked back to a 2004 prediction from Bill Gates, who said we’d be using passwords less and less. Likewise, without any data he can’t assume that consumers are using password managers as they should. He noted this wasn’t due to any kind of prescience about the coronavirus pandemic, but rather an aversion to making optimistic assumptions in the absence of data.

Schechter introduced himself as that guy who was wearing an N95 mask at last year’s RSAC, an oddball among a sea of naked faces. The Password Is Dead, Long Live the Password At the 2021 virtual RSA security conference, Schechter and grad student David Ng revealed their findings. So much so that he encouraged his graduate students to find out just what you’re doing. Stuart Schechter, Lecturer and Course Lead for UC Berkeley’s Usable Privacy and Security track, worries that you’re not. But did you replace the bad passwords with strong unique ones? Did you protect all those passwords with a strong master password that nobody else could guess? In short: are you using your password manager correctly? Best Malware Removal and Protection SoftwareĬongratulations! You followed our advice and installed a password manager! Maybe you even trained it up to remember all your passwords.
