wildercb/PrivacyTextBooks1.2 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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former Disney actress attempted suicide on the very day the images went
public.20 Olstead was hospitalized and lost consciousness for several days.
Olstead described her reaction to the violation of privacy: “[Y]ou realize
that everything that you cared for—your work, your family, you know, the
person that you love. . . you could lose everything because of the actions of
a stranger, someone you’ve never met can take everything from you so
fast.”21
“I was humiliated,” Olstead declared. “[T]his is the sort of thing that will
haunt me for a very long time. And I realized that suddenly I wasn’t the girl
who works full time, is a full-time student, still manages to make the dean’s
list. I was the girl who was naked on the Internet.”22
The leaked nude images sparked an FBI response. In what was referred
to as “Operation Hackerazzi,” the FBI investigated the source of the leaked
images. The FBI closed in on Chaney, and on February 10, 2011, FBI
agents searched the home Chaney was living in and seized his computers.
The FBI didn’t arrest him because they hoped Chaney might be able to help
identify others engaging in similar conduct. The media descended upon
Chaney, who apologized and admitted that his actions caused “probably one
of the worst invasions of privacy someone could experience.”23
Nevertheless, Chaney continued to hack into celebrity accounts. Chaney
was soon indicted with multiple counts of illegally gaining access and
causing damage to email systems, aggravated identity theft, and illegal
wiretapping. He was arrested the day after his indictment was handed
down.24
Chaney plead guilty to unauthorized access to a protected computer to
obtain information, unauthorized damage to a protected computer, and
wiretapping. At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors asked for Chaney to
serve six years in prison. In an unusual move, the judge increased the
sentence to 10 years—beyond the prosecution’s recommendation and even
beyond the sentencing guidelines.25
This case shows how easy it is to hack into other people’s accounts and
snoop into their most intimate information. Chaney possessed no special
knowledge of computer programming. Chaney didn’t possess magical
mind-reading capabilities. He was so successful because the password
system is set up so that people will fail.
Time to Kill the Password?
Authentication presents one of the greatest security challenges
organizations face. How do we accurately ensure that people seeking access
to accounts or data are actually whom they say they are? People need to be
able to access accounts and data conveniently, and access must often be
provided remotely without being able to see or hear the person seeking
access.
The most common approach to authentication is the use of passwords.
Passwords are quite useful because they are so easy to create and replace.
Passwords by themselves, however, are a very poor form of security.26 The
problem with passwords is people. People select poor passwords, reuse
them on many sites, and have difficulty remembering them.27
As we previously mentioned, an annual list is compiled of the most
widely used passwords.28 Some perennial ones that always make the top of
the list include simple words like “dragon,” “monkey,” “baseball,” and
“princess.” Passwords such as “login,” “password,” and “letmein” are also
included on the list. The password “123456” is often at the top of the list.
So are “12345” and “1234.”
Among experts, it is common to hear humorous stories about foolish
passwords or of people writing down passwords on sticky notes and pasting
them on their computer monitors. “People need to be savvier and more
careful,” the experts say. All this is true, but it’s not people’s fault. Creating
and remembering so many passwords of sufficient length and complexity is
beyond people’s cognitive bandwidth.
Peoples’ bandwidth gets depleted because authentication is needed on so
many sites and systems—there are too many passwords for even those with
the best memories to remember. According to one study, consumers have an
average of 24 online accounts.29 For those who use the Internet more
robustly, the number of accounts is in the hundreds—accounts for health
insurance sites, bank sites, investment company sites, credit card company
sites, utility company sites, news sites, entertainment sites, social media
sites, and merchant sites, among many others. There are also logins
associated with one’s place of employment and logins for devices like smart
phones and laptops. The number of accounts that people have can be
staggering.
To make matters worse, people are advised not to use a dictionary word
or someone’s name, as these can be cracked too easily.30 Password systems
often require people to use special characters, numbers, punctuation, and
upper and lower case. All these add complexity to passwords, which make
them harder to guess through random attempts, but they also make
passwords significantly harder to remember.
These demands have resulted in users being given the Herculean task of
creating a unique, complex password for every account. No one can
remember all these passwords, so people ignore the advice about using
unique passwords and reuse the same password or draw from a pool of a
few passwords. According to a study, 73 percent of accounts use duplicate
passwords, and consumers use, on average, only one unique password per
every four accounts.31
Common approaches to authentication result in even greater
unreasonable demands on human memory. Impossible isn’t enough, so it
must be multiplied by another impossible feat. A common (though
obsolete) security practice is to change passwords frequently, and many
companies force people to do so. It’s hard enough to juggle dozens of balls,
but now people are being asked to juggle them while riding a unicycle on a
tightrope. Unsurprisingly, when people aren’t forced to change their
passwords, they don’t. Indeed, nearly half of consumers have a password
they haven’t changed in more than five years.32
Many years ago, a company marketed a product called Password Minder
with an infomercial that touted it as a revolutionary way to “safely store
passwords.”
“Never
lose
a
password,”
the

former Disney actress attempted suicide on the very day the images went

public.20 Olstead was hospitalized and lost consciousness for several days.

Olstead described her reaction to the violation of privacy: “[Y]ou realize

that everything that you cared for—your work, your family, you know, the

person that you love. . . you could lose everything because of the actions of

a stranger, someone you’ve never met can take everything from you so

fast.”21

“I was humiliated,” Olstead declared. “[T]his is the sort of thing that will

haunt me for a very long time. And I realized that suddenly I wasn’t the girl

who works full time, is a full-time student, still manages to make the dean’s

list. I was the girl who was naked on the Internet.”22

The leaked nude images sparked an FBI response. In what was referred

to as “Operation Hackerazzi,” the FBI investigated the source of the leaked

images. The FBI closed in on Chaney, and on February 10, 2011, FBI

agents searched the home Chaney was living in and seized his computers.

The FBI didn’t arrest him because they hoped Chaney might be able to help

identify others engaging in similar conduct. The media descended upon

Chaney, who apologized and admitted that his actions caused “probably one

of the worst invasions of privacy someone could experience.”23

Nevertheless, Chaney continued to hack into celebrity accounts. Chaney

was soon indicted with multiple counts of illegally gaining access and

causing damage to email systems, aggravated identity theft, and illegal

wiretapping. He was arrested the day after his indictment was handed

down.24

Chaney plead guilty to unauthorized access to a protected computer to

obtain information, unauthorized damage to a protected computer, and

wiretapping. At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors asked for Chaney to

serve six years in prison. In an unusual move, the judge increased the

sentence to 10 years—beyond the prosecution’s recommendation and even

beyond the sentencing guidelines.25

This case shows how easy it is to hack into other people’s accounts and

snoop into their most intimate information. Chaney possessed no special

knowledge of computer programming. Chaney didn’t possess magical

mind-reading capabilities. He was so successful because the password

system is set up so that people will fail.

Time to Kill the Password?

Authentication presents one of the greatest security challenges

organizations face. How do we accurately ensure that people seeking access

to accounts or data are actually whom they say they are? People need to be

able to access accounts and data conveniently, and access must often be

provided remotely without being able to see or hear the person seeking

access.

The most common approach to authentication is the use of passwords.

Passwords are quite useful because they are so easy to create and replace.

Passwords by themselves, however, are a very poor form of security.26 The

problem with passwords is people. People select poor passwords, reuse

them on many sites, and have difficulty remembering them.27

As we previously mentioned, an annual list is compiled of the most

widely used passwords.28 Some perennial ones that always make the top of

the list include simple words like “dragon,” “monkey,” “baseball,” and

“princess.” Passwords such as “login,” “password,” and “letmein” are also

included on the list. The password “123456” is often at the top of the list.

So are “12345” and “1234.”

Among experts, it is common to hear humorous stories about foolish

passwords or of people writing down passwords on sticky notes and pasting

them on their computer monitors. “People need to be savvier and more

careful,” the experts say. All this is true, but it’s not people’s fault. Creating

and remembering so many passwords of sufficient length and complexity is

beyond people’s cognitive bandwidth.

Peoples’ bandwidth gets depleted because authentication is needed on so

many sites and systems—there are too many passwords for even those with

the best memories to remember. According to one study, consumers have an

average of 24 online accounts.29 For those who use the Internet more

robustly, the number of accounts is in the hundreds—accounts for health

insurance sites, bank sites, investment company sites, credit card company

sites, utility company sites, news sites, entertainment sites, social media

sites, and merchant sites, among many others. There are also logins

associated with one’s place of employment and logins for devices like smart

phones and laptops. The number of accounts that people have can be

staggering.

To make matters worse, people are advised not to use a dictionary word

or someone’s name, as these can be cracked too easily.30 Password systems

often require people to use special characters, numbers, punctuation, and

upper and lower case. All these add complexity to passwords, which make

them harder to guess through random attempts, but they also make

passwords significantly harder to remember.

These demands have resulted in users being given the Herculean task of

creating a unique, complex password for every account. No one can

remember all these passwords, so people ignore the advice about using

unique passwords and reuse the same password or draw from a pool of a

few passwords. According to a study, 73 percent of accounts use duplicate

passwords, and consumers use, on average, only one unique password per

every four accounts.31

Common approaches to authentication result in even greater

unreasonable demands on human memory. Impossible isn’t enough, so it

must be multiplied by another impossible feat. A common (though

obsolete) security practice is to change passwords frequently, and many

companies force people to do so. It’s hard enough to juggle dozens of balls,

but now people are being asked to juggle them while riding a unicycle on a

tightrope. Unsurprisingly, when people aren’t forced to change their

passwords, they don’t. Indeed, nearly half of consumers have a password

they haven’t changed in more than five years.32

Many years ago, a company marketed a product called Password Minder

with an infomercial that touted it as a revolutionary way to “safely store

passwords.”

“Never

lose

a

password,”

the