Password has continued to maintain its position as first line of system defense in every facet of human lives, despite argument by notable security researchers that the use of passwords as authentication method is vulnerable and characterized by security and usability drawbacks.
Aborisade Olaniyi of the department of Computer Science, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAA)B, said that password’s credibility and authentication prowess is evident in management of systems at home, offices, and for financial transactions.
He said this is because of its familiarity, and low cost, adding that study shows that Nigerians keep between five to ten passwords.
Olaniyi made the remark during a presentation at the recent Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) international conference, adding that “For example, it has been generally noted that an average Nigerian keeps between five (5) to ten (10) passwords for transactions on different systems at homes, offices and financial transactions. Password managers are designed to relieve password fatigue and reduce login time”.
He added that the proliferation and popularity of password as the commonest method of authenticating users to enhance security has attracted attentions of many researchers.
Olaniyi said that the researchers adopted an architectural framework design infused into user account and login module, security module and authentication module.
“The proposed password manager system was implemented and deployed on one hundred (100) networked systems for 100 different users to test at the same time. Each user is allowed to use ten (10) different transaction accounts for the test.
“Responses from the users indicate that the proposed system is capable of using the password manager at the same time on the same network,” he said.
He maintained that the trend in every society of the World today is that of movement towards a level where the number of passwords that an average user keeps would be unimaginable owing to participation in transaction accounts ranging from online banking systems, web mail sites, to social media sites.