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At What Point Does Storing Passwords in Plaintext Become Criminally Negligent

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday April 08 2018, @02:07PM   
from the easier-to-check-that-way dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2018/04/another-day-another-breach-at-what-point-does-storing-passwords-in-plaintext-become-criminally-negligent/

The third largest breach ever just happened in Finland. Passwords were stored in plaintext. At T-Mobile Austria, they explain that of course they store the password in plaintext, but they have so good security so it's nothing to worry about. At what point does this become criminally negligent?

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Original Submission

• Re:When it's fraud(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:52PM

  by Thexalon (636) on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:52PM (#664050)

  My usual summary of the issue:

  1. To say government can do no wrong is stupid, because government can and has done wrong. Furthermore, that belief means the government will have your support regardless of whether it does right or does wrong, giving it no incentive to do right.

  2. To say government can do no right is equally stupid, because government can and has done right. Furthermore, that belief means the government will have your opposition regardless of whether it does right or does wrong, giving it no incentive to do right.

  The right starting place is "What is the right thing for the government to do in this situation?" Answering "nothing" is sometimes right (the libertarians are absolutely correct to start with this idea), and sometimes wrong (crooks of all kinds would love to avoid government scrutiny).

  --
  "Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin

  Parent

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