Re: passwords

[Kent Percival <percival () UOGUELPH CA>]

Should we be advocating for better networked Access Management solutions which reduce password proliferation without 
requiring more complicated solutions than necessary for the user?

 

Many of us have adopted Single-Sign-On solutions for our campus.  We should also encourage



·        OpenId for lower risk social networking or general “cloud” applications.
With Google, Yahoo, etc. getting behind OpenId, this access federation solution will become much more pervasive.  It is 
also a good solution for lower-risk campus applications that extend to audiences beyond the immediate community, 
including prospective students.  For such external applications we should encourage our community to adopt such 
solutions for their general internet activities to improve their security hygiene.



·        SAML 2.x (e.g. Shibboleth) for higher risk applications operated outside the immediate campus security domain 
(e.g. multi-institutional shared, or commercially provided, such as library resource providers).  Access to these 
applications depend on the user’s relationship to the institution – SAML can transmit such institutional role 
information to service provider authorization policies, while also protecting identity leaks, all while relying on the 
institution’s Single-Sign-On credentials for authentication.

 

....Kent

 

Kent Percival,  M.Sc., P.Eng.

Manager, Research Partnerships

Computing and Communications Services

University of Guelph

Guelph, ON  N1G 2W1

 

_

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Gary Dobbins [mailto:dobbins () ND EDU]

> Sent: October 17, 2009 19:16

> Subject: Re: SECURITY Digest - 15 Oct 2009 to 16 Oct 2009 (#2009-236)

>

> Has anyone else tried lastpass (.com)?  I've found it to be an option for handling these problems.  It will

> randomly generate passwords, remember them all, one for each place you visit, and (presuming their

> answers to how they handle the data are true) the storehouse of your passwords never leaves your

> computer unencrypted by a master password only you know.

>

> I'd be interested to hear if others find this valid, or if the service has a serious Achilles Heel.

>

>

>

> > -----Original Message-----

> > From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv

> > [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Geoff Nathan

> > Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 6:37 PM

> > To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU

> > Subject: Re: [SECURITY] SECURITY Digest - 15 Oct 2009 to 16 Oct 2009 (#2009-

> > 236)

> >

> > Matt said:

> >

> > > I tend use truly random passwords from a

> > > generator or those similar in style to what Don

> > > mentioned.

> >

> > It's of course ideal to use long, random, meaningless strings as passwords. It's

> > also ideal to have a different password for each application (server, e-mail,

> > banking site, etc. etc.) that we log into. But I have two e-mail accounts (three if

> > we include the one that AT&T gives me as part of my home setup), a Wayne

> > State single sign-on password, my bank, my credit card, my retirement accounts,

> > and then the less risky ones like Amazon, Zagat, Cooks Illustrated, Tripit, and I

> > could go on (as in fact I have...)

> > It's simply impossible to remember all these, unless I repeat the passwords, or

> > use a password wallet (which itself is clumsy, and requires its own password). As

> > others have said, the password paradigm is broken, and, as long as two-factor is

> > too expensive we're going to continue to have trouble, and it's not the users'

> > fault. We can't ask them to do twelve impossible things before breakfast and slap

> > their wrists when they don't. Eventually they will slap back, and they will be

> > right.

> >

> > Geoffrey S. Nathan

> > Faculty Liaison, C&IT

> > and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program

> > Wayne State University

> > Detroit MI 48230

> > +1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

> > +1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

> >

> > ----- "SECURITY automatic digest system"

> > <LISTSERV () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> wrote:

> > > From: "SECURITY automatic digest system"

> > <LISTSERV () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>

> > > To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU

> > > Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 12:00:01 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern

> > > Subject: SECURITY Digest - 15 Oct 2009 to 16 Oct 2009 (#2009-236)

> > >

> > > SECURITY Digest - 15 Oct 2009 to 16 Oct 2009 (#2009-236)            LISTSERV mailing

> > list manager            LISTSERV 15.0

> > >

> >

> > >

> >

> > Browse the SECURITY online archives.

> >

> > Anti-Virus FilterPowered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: