We all make use of passwords every day for various login purposes. The latest development is that Microsoft has disclosed that passwords are inconvenient drain and are regarded as a drain on productivity. According to reports, people are making effective use of passwordless authentication methods such as two-factor (2FA) and One-time-password (OTP) authentications respectively. The handling of passwords is highly regarded as an inconvenient drain on the overall productivity.
Rapid rise of OTP
The OTP is gaining rapid momentum since it generates relevant one-time PIN code, which you can use to access the concerned data. You have to generate OTP again if you want to access the same content. The financial institutions have adopted the OTP technology massively mainly for authenticating Credit Card transactions.
If you look at the 2FA, users are provided with an additional authentication layer besides regular passwords with the help of dedicated apps such as Microsoft, Google, and LinkedIn authenticators. For instance, you can use Gmail credentials to access data and content in case the provider allows. You should use this method carefully only with legal apps.
Commenting on the development, the Redmond-based software giant revealed that a bad actor can perform social engineering irrespective of the condition of the password. Even if you use a strong password, your credentials can be easily hacked for listing on the dark web. Moreover, the provision of passwords doesn’t provide any form of security since they only increase the service desk expense. The company added that people are spending hours before their PCs to login to applications including the recovery of forgotten usernames and passwords. Is it not an unnecessary drain on productivity?
The real fact is that companies like Google often ask users to provide recovery emails, which will be different than the account you are creating. Moreover, they are also adopting phone verification. We feel that the privacy of users is at stake because we are providing all data as part of the requirement to a third-party company. It’s only a matter of time for the hackers to steal valuable data.
Data for sale
The recent episode revolving stealing od data from the secure servers of the Unacademy is a classic example of the insecurity of our environment. There are reports that the data of all Unacademy students and educators were reportedly listed for sale on the Dark Web.
According to Microsoft, the adoption of passwordless authentication methods has seen a huge spike in the last few years with more than 150 million people employing them for various needs. The 55 percent of the user community prefers to protect their account without passwords, while 67 percent of US-based consumers have used biometric authentication for authenticating VISA transactions.
The Windows manufacturer claims that one in every 250 corporate accounts are being comprised every month. Hence, depending only on passwords is not a good enterprise defense strategy. As per estimates, enterprise companies dedicate up to 60 percent of the technical support desk calls for the reset of passwords. This will cause an unwanted drain on productivity for the staffers since they only work on one single job.
Conclusion
That being said, passwords will continue to become an integral part of our lives until businesses and providers adopt new technologies. You should keep a strict vigil on your user account. We would suggest you to modify the passwords of all your properties every 6 months even if there is no data breach. The intention is to ensure the protection of your data. In case of any data breach of any property, you should change the password immediately with a strong combination of alphabets, numbers, and symbols.
