It's official, Corporate Passwords Are Cheap | Hacker News Reader

It's official, Corporate Passwords Are Cheap

net-security.org

13 pointsvoodoochilo7 comments

I would guess most employees even give away their passwords for free, by just using the same one for every account they sign up for - you would just need to guess the correct username for their corporate account...

Which is likely to be their name, following the same format as other corporate accounts.

I think it's important to note the difference between giving away your password, and allowing others to access your information. I'd give someone my password for £10 if I could instantly change it to something else - But it would take a heck of a lot more for me to allow someone to access my files & identity.

Yes. The article didn't mention whether the identity of the seller would be sold as well. Knowing that a person exists in the world whose corporate password is "FuzzieBunn1" isn't a terribly useful piece of information. Furthermore, did survey participants perceive that there might be some risk of being caught selling access to one's company? In most countries, doing so must be a crime of some sort. In general, I'm skeptical of the survey.

The poll numbers are pretty meaningless without some further info or breakdowns. How many of these are Tesco/Walmart employees? Or at companies with card swipe entrances? I'm not saying someone couldn't use a password in that scenario beneficially, but it changes the dynamic compared to a VPN password for someone with the authority to approve large transactions.

I'd mostly guess that no-one is offering to sell a (to them) meaningful business password on the cheap, but perhaps they underestimate what could be done with it. Or perhaps they see their IT or building infrastructure as sufficient to catch unauthorized people standing at the tills, or at desks (and they may be underestimating again how straightforward it can be)

The "survey" was apparently paid for by a company that does corporate identity management. Is it any surprise they got the results that would motivate people to buy their product?

solution: log in via Facebook for corporate.

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