That Odd Authentication Dichotomy Needs To Change

By now, it should be clear that we need to consider strong (multi factor) authentication for access to anything of value. In an age and time when most public email services (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc.) provide for strong authentication, it would seem inexplicable to allow access to corporate email or remote access to your organization’s systems with just the basic (user-id: password) authentication.

Think about this… Your personal Hotmail account uses 2 Factor, but your organization’s Office 365 email doesn’t.  I am sure you agree that this odd dichotomy needs to change.

(Note: I am not suggesting the privacy of your personal email is any less important than the security of your corporate email. By dichotomy, I am referring to your organization not being at least as much concerned about their security as you are concerned about your personal privacy)

And, if your organization does find itself in a situation where you have no way but to continue with the basic authentication, some testing and studies of passwords like this one should be considered for making your password policies (truly) stronger. Don’t continue with your password standard established years ago (or based on some arbitrary best practice or external standard)  forcing users to have a complex combination of alphanumeric/symbols, change passwords every 60 days or not allowing them to reuse the last 6 or 24 passwords or something. You may be only making their user experience miserable without making your password security any stronger. Also, don’t forget to take a look at your password hash we talked about here as a case in point.

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Kamal Govindaswamy

Posted on

August 15, 2014