Comments on: Stop Password Masking – Is Usability More Crucial Than Security?

By: Jeremy Bergsman

Jeremy Bergsman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:02:27 +0000

Nice post. The irony of this tempest in a teapot, is that they are attacking what is probably the least important of the usability aspects of passwords in masking. What about password complexity? Forced password changes?

I address the 5 key aspects of password usability in a post here:
http://irec.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/5-properti...

By: Xypha

Xypha — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:23:02 +0000

Still not convinced by what Nielsen says. I actually prefer not even having any character output on screen, ala Linux's terminal.

Maybe it's 'paranoid' to someone else's mind, but the less a person could glean from various information on the screen, the better, in my opinion.

By: JoshuaRJones

JoshuaRJones — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:43:07 +0000

Oh totally convenience over security. Just like how I leave my door unlocked when I leave for work. No messing with silly keys for me!

On a serious note, the argument of looking at keys pressed on the keyboard is stretching it. Not everyone is an uber spy. Plus, a few of my passwords are sentences long.

Overall, using 1Password has combined security & convenience for me. Highly suggest it to Mac users.

By: Scott Jarkoff

Scott Jarkoff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:46:22 +0000

I've honestly never understood the whole email confirmation train of thought. Makes absolutely no sense to me for the very reasons you state.

By: YorickPeterse

YorickPeterse — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:54:19 +0000

First comment when I read his article ? “WTF!?!?” Sure there's a reason for it, but the reason is very, very stupid :|

By: Gregroy

Gregroy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:53:42 +0000

These guys are obviously not in touch with the real world and have been shut up inside their offices with their monitors facing the wall for way too long. Are they really such terrible typers that they need constant feedback to know what they are typing? This is not the time to compromise security for lazy or incompetent people.

By: Lee Theobald

Lee Theobald — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:36:19 +0000

Yeah, Jakob Nielsen is a bit off here. He obviously has never worked in a coffee shop on a laptop, or a internet cafe, or a library or… Well the list could go on of places people use computers where it is quite easy for someone else to use your screen.

I do agree with him slightly though. I have often slipped, hit the wrong key and had to start all over again because I lost track. I think the problem comes down to the implementation though. Perhaps something more like the iPhone way of doing things (where all characters are starred out except for the last character you typed) is a better way to go. It gives you that feedback but it's that little bit trickier for someone watching your screen to see what you are typing in.

By: Haslina Ali

Haslina Ali — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:38:30 +0000

At least they ask you to enter an email address. My email address has been attached to more than 1 online bank account in America, and for some odd reason, they refuse to remove it even though I sent many emails to their customer service informing them that I was not Ms xxx xxxx or whoever.

By: w00kie

w00kie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:24:49 +0000

one trend I really abhor is the “enter your email a 2nd time to confirm” field
you know everyone is just copy-n-pasting from one field to the other, there is no-added value here, it's just a loss of time

By: Zenon Tigerpaw

Zenon Tigerpaw — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:04:40 +0000

Security, please. I understand where he is coming from. Still that is total WTF!?