![]() It was a hectic time to begin with, but nobody wanted to deal with the added confusion of remembering a complex series of credentials just to setup their room for wireless or wired access. ![]() ![]() I worked for a college help desk once which often dedicated many resources to helping students set up various accounts and hardware during move-in day. It’s not just technology manufacturers and random administrators who trust devices - and even users - with default passwords. Educational institutions often take a similar approach to onboarding new students, faculty, and staff. Advice from Personal Experience – Default Algorithms It just seems like we haven't taken it to heart. We've all heard the message: Never reuse old or weak passwords. We establish default passwords for our own use because it negates the task of having to remember even more passwords than we typically need to. Administrator passwords for use around the office, a single password that you use for random websites - the list goes on and on. Think about your daily life for a moment: at work, at home, or even on individual websites - you are bound to come across a password that is standard in one way or another. This brings me to my next point: default user credentials. If you give them an inch - you can be sure that intrepid hackers will take every mile they can get. The general consensus is that surely such devices are safe behind a firewall - but we've all learned that hackers are smarter than that. Unfortunately, users and administrators will often leave default credentials as is: with the same default passwords that the new devices were shipped with. These devices also include default passwords and username credentials to allow for proper configuration and integration with said network. Internal Devicesĭevices such as printers, routers, and other on-premises hardware often connect directly to a network behind a firewall. These resources are typically meant to be used when a user forgets the default credentials – but you can be sure that hackers will use the same resources as well. However, these default passwords can be found in a whole host of different locations. As noted in this article from the SANS Technology Institute, many manufacturers will provide default passwords to enable easy access to additional features, security, etc. Regardless of what they are being used for, default passwords need to be changed immediately upon being introduced to a digital environment or network. The problem with default passwords illustrates just how dangerous usability can be. However, the danger in this situation arises when usability is created in such a manner that it sacrifices a strong sense of security. This is especially true when onboarding new users to a given environment. This practices introduces additional, wholly unnecessary security risks into an environment that is meant to protect important, sensitive data.Īlongside the usage of a username and password authentication combo comes the desire to make things as simple as possible. Whether out of habit, defiance, or plain lackadaisical negligence, users still refrain from changing default passwords. In fact, many users interact with default passwords throughout their daily activities – and therein lies the problem. Default Passwords are not some series of enigmas that most people cannot hope to understand.
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