Posts Tagged ‘governmen’

BAD NEWS: Your passwords in France may be read by others

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

This is probably one of the most absurd piece of news I heard.

It is common practice for us to encrypt passwords on our web and other databases using a one-way hash. The idea is that our users feel relieved that their accounts are safe. But now this crazy news about government law!

The Government of France apparently insists that passwords be kept unencrypted. And the reason behind it is to allow the ‘law’ access to them on demand.

In my opinion, this is an absurd rule and it can just cause people to lose trust and confidence in service providers. How would you, for example, feel if Yahoo were to reveal your unencrypted passwords to the government? In that case, you’d rather keep your doors unlocked during the night.

If this rather silly rule is going to be implemented, we’re in for an economic down-turn dur to its negative impact.

Based off the story here: http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/11/france-to-require-cl.html