Passwords are an old solution for 21st century cybersecurity needs !!

As this article explains, passwords can be breached and users can face harm when it happens.  The problems with passwords are many and it's only going to get worse.  For many users there are so many passwords to remember and use they either keep them written down in a book, in a file on their computer, or they try to reuse the same password multiple times to reduce the number they have to remember.

In this case a reused password was breached at one site and then the hackers tried those logon credentials at the Nest website possibly based on other information indicating the user has a Nest account.  Since the credentials were the same between websites, the hacker was able to access the user's account.

One disturbing aspect to this article is the quote from Google who owns Nest in which they blame the breach on the user because of the breached password.  But what is omitted from the article is whether or not the user was aware of the breach at the other website.  If the user was not aware then blaming the user for reusing a password is not very customer oriented.  When faced with a dilemma, users will do what they have to in order to make a product they pay for work.  If the only option you provide to secure their account is a password then they will do what they need to in order to make it work for them.

What many cybersecurity companies fail to comprehend is that users, particularly in the consumer space, are not IT experts.  They do not know what are cybersecurity best practices, such as not reusing a password on multiple sites.  Products and technologies should be targeted toward easing and facilitating a natural implementation of security procedures to the extent that most individuals would not even recognize they were following best practices.

How is such action done to ease and make more natural the process of following good security habits?  Mostly through automation, but also through development of new technologies that change the perspective about how cybersecurity is used.

That the idea and inspiration behind CYPHYX and its products, to push cybersecurity in the direction of making it easier to use, less technical, and more natural.  DARE, our patented technology, implements data protection and combines it with authentication, which means that each time you connect and exchange a message, update a record, or do just about anything, you are authenticated by the very nature of the protection you are using to perform the task.  The encryption is unique and different each time it is used, but due to the embedded authentication, you are always identified as you and no one else, no hacker or other type of nefarious individual, can impersonate or obtain any of the data being protected.

This is what it means to make the use of cybersecurity a natural part of the process.  Since authentication is embedded and requires no user interaction, there are no passwords to remember and no means for a breach at another site to weaken and expose the data at the DARE protected site.  This natural process eliminates the human component as well as simplifying the process over all and reducing the overhead needed to support such cybersecurity protection.

In the coming months CYPHYX has many other such cutting edge technologies in the pipeline and as they are introduced will work to solve problems such as those described in this article.

My Blood 'Ran Cold' as Smart Home Was Hacked: Homeowner

A Lake Barrington homeowner hasn't had a restful night's sleep in ten days, after he said his Nest home security cameras and thermostats were accessed by malicious hackers.