Password Reuse – Control networks double the risk

Control system vendors continue to bury hidden "default" passwords in their system which can fall victim to malware or hackers, making them the perfect backdoor into a company's operations.

By Eric Byres January 2, 2011

Jason Holcomb at Digital Bond wrote a great article called “Everybody Knows Your Passwords” on the issues of default passwords. In it he talked about how some control system vendors continue to bury hidden “default” passwords in their system. As Stuxnet illustrated, these passwords can fall victim to malware or hackers, making them the perfect backdoor into a company’s operations.

This week, I will add two more issues to this whole password “Hash Up” (sorry for the bad pun) that is a danger to control system security.

Password Re-use

The first is the problem of password reuse in control systems. Password reuse is the habit we all have of using the same password on multiple systems. In the IT world it is causing considerable concern because people use the same password for signing up for a free software download site as they use for accessing their bank account.

https://www.isssource.com/password-reuse-%E2%80%93-control-networks-double-the-risk/