** Reply to note from Chris Bayliss <[log in to unmask]> Fri, 3 May 2002 09:33:14 +0100
> On computers, any secure password will be irreversibly encrypted, so
> its supply would not be possible. Trying to crack passwords to find
> them out is arguably disproportionate effort, and in some cases is not
> guaranteed to find the same password. Both impossibility and
> disproportionate effort are valid reasons not to supply data (section
> 8).
>
> If they aren't encrypted and are used to protect personal data it is
> difficult to see how their use complies with the seventh principle.
Hi Dave,
Yeap. Add to the above ...
A password may not be unique, and does not have to be unique ... the users ID
would normally be unique. Further, the moment users can and do change their
password as Chris says, you cannot in theory unencrypt them.
The way access is given is:
(a) the user is authenticated against a database (where the password is
stored encrypted) and the user is allowed access to the system.
(b) for areas where the user has access there is somewhere an indicator that
tell the system the userID is permitted to access whatever.
What I am trying to say the key to all this is the ID not the password.
If it helps muddle the waters ;-)
Charles
==============================================
Charles Christacopoulos, Management Information Officer,
Planning & Information Group, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN,
Scotland, United Kingdom.
Tel: 44(0)1382-344891. Fax: 44(0)1382-201604.
http://www.somis.dundee.ac.uk/ http://somis2.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
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