Basic cyber security says that passwords should be encrypted and hashed, so that even the company storing them doesn’t know what the password is. (When you log in, the site performs the same encrypting and hashing steps and compares the results) Otherwise if they are hacked, the attackers get access to all the passwords.
I’ve noticed a few companies ask for specific characters of my password to prove who I am (eg enter the 2nd and 9th character)
Is there any secure way that this could be happening? Or are the companies storing my password in plain text?
NatWest in the Uk does it for both the password and the pin, has been since I signed up like 10 years ago. I assumed they do it so you don’t enter a full password that someone could access later. No idea how they work out but they are big and I assume if it was insecure they’d have had issues by now. I assume they store the letter groupings in advance.
At this point, it’s okay to assume that they have had issues and they haven’t disclosed them.
Can a company be sued for storing pw in plaintext?
I’m not sure if they can be sued for that. Surely you can sue them if they get hacked and you’re negatively affected, though.
So i get the feeling that storing pw in plaintext is heavily frowned upon but not illegal
Not ilegal. Just very stupid. Like it’s not illegal to leave your house’s front door unlocked.