Google says tough passwords don't matter; Instant Login is a solution
The experience we know as password hell can be radically changed to the next and a half to three years.
Struggling to come up with long strings of complicated capital and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols? It's so yesterday.
There is hope, anyway.
In a fascinating interview with Google product manager Mark Risher in The Verge this week, he laid out his vision for why the passwords we have been told to create, really do not help.
They have "no significance for phishing, no significance for password breaks, no significance for password reuse," he said. "We think it's much more important to reduce the total number of passwords out there."
In other words, all the time you have been forced to use, trying to create harder to crack passwords, is waste. At least that's how he seems to see it.
I believe that all Talking Tech readers will agree that all we can do to eliminate the constant writing of passwords in our daily hours will be warmly welcomed.
But how do you get there?
Google wants you to use its single sign-in feature, which still requires a password, and Google has approved your identity, for a second layer of authority, via text messages or via the Google smartphone app.
Apple just announced its answer to Google's login, with an option that will be introduced to the iPhone and iPad in the fall, as part of the iOS13 software upgrade. Google has a market share of 85% for its Android phone system, 14.9% for Apple, according to Market Tracker IDC.
"Between the two, it's mostly everyone's phone system," says Bob Rudis, Chief Data Scientist for Security Company Rapid 7. "So most will always get this by default the next 18 to 36 months."
For years, Facebook and Google have offered consumers the opportunity to ditch their multiple passwords, and instead use their simple login system to access websites. These tools do not even require the recording of screen names and passwords, just a click on "Sign in with" Facebook or Google tab.
Apple hopes to go a little deeper, using Face ID and Touch ID biometric features on the iPhone and iPad to work around these clicks. If a site or app asks for an email address, Apple will "create a unique email address that relays to your real," the company said.
So how is single sign-on safer if Facebook is responsible? It's not, says security experts. "They've shown that they can't trust our information," Rudis says.
However, Google is more reliable, and Apple is the best of the trio, he adds, because of his public commitment to privacy.
Both are super practical. Who would rather not click on a Facebook or Google icon instead of re-entering your name and password?
But not everyone we talked to agreed that we can put our backs down and forget about tough passwords.
Even Google, on its website, recommends at least 8 characters and combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. Apple has the same requirements, with at least one number minimum. "You can also add extra characters and punctuation codes to make your password even stronger," the company said.
"You can also make the password more complex by doing it longer with a sentence or a number of words that you can easily remember, but no one else knows," says Facebook.
Andy Halverson, who runs IT for video company Ooyala, looks for a password processing and lets it create and remember the hard passwords, so he doesn't need it. He uses password processing Dashlane, but there are many other popular ones, including Lastpass and 1Pass.
"I like single sign-on, but this is another tool, and very convenient," he says.
James Litton, CEO of the security firm Identity Automation, does not believe that single sign-on achieves much. "If it's a horrible password, your security situation hasn't improved," he says.
He likes super long passwords, as many as 32 to 64 characters, but stored in a password processing. With a manager, type in one master password and the software logs in.
"It is harder for a poor guy to pick words out of a dictionary for a hacking attack if I go long," he says.
However, Rudis currently says a combination of long passwords and a password manager will cause us "to the nirvana to log on with a single login" everywhere.
It will take time. First, Apple has to convince hundreds of thousands of websites to add its simple login system, which won't be easy. Apple, Google, and Facebook have major sales projects going forward. For example, while logging into Barnes and Noble and Kroger with Google, this option is not available on many top sites, including Target, Walmart, American Airlines, Verizon Wireless, and Home Depot.
Jefferson Graham offers tips on how to better enhance smartphone vacation selfies and food shots.
Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
In other technical news this week
Elon Musk announced a new Tesla video game at the E3 conference: The racing game "Beach Buggy Racing 2" will use the Tesla steering wheel and will be played in his car. Musk warned that the car must be in the park in order to play.
Speak of Games passed the PlayStation game system shortly on Thursday for about four hours. According to the PlayStation status indicator, there were issues with account management, games and social, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Music.
A leak of Google's next edition of the Pixel phone that appears online this week. After techblogger has received unprotected images, Google did something unexpected: the search giant went to social media to post real-time images of the next-generation smartphone months before the expected release. On Wednesday, Google made a rendition on Twitter with the caption "Well, since there seems to be some interest, here you go! Wait until you see what ten can do." # Pixel4. "Google traditionally introduces new hardware this fall.
And ICYMI, I offered some killer photo tips on how to get better vacation photos with your smartphone. Do you know about the flashlight app trick for food, or hourly for selfies? Check it out! [19659004] This week's Talking Tech podcasts
Hello Google, why do you track every move?
More about Google's tracking
Kristina Kumic takes on Father's Day videos [19659004] How to use technology for to set up interviews
Mattel revamped new Hot Wheels
That's the Talking Tech news package, please subscribe to the newsletter, http://technewsletter.usatoday.com, listen to the daily Talking Tech podcast wherever you go likes sound and follow me (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
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