If we really want to get this ornery, then we should see a companion case against regular password changing/expiring because that degrades a customer experience when they forget they changed it yesterday and have to increase support calls to work the issue out.

All in all, a useful discussion, but some things just don’t need to be changed, really. :) The risk savings is low if not actually in the red…and the real risk of elaborate setups like reflections is admittedly exceedingly low for most. :)

I saw thsi fly through the pauldotcom mailing list last week, and I’d restate one of my points about an unmasked password, depending on the circumstances: We lose the ability to effectively know no one else saw the password.

It’s tough to watch someone type a password and be able to reproduce it. But it is not tough to get the briefest of glimpses of a password and be able to reproduce it. Especially when so many passwords are, at their base, a word or easy phrase with a few char subs and/or numbers/non-alphas behind them.

I also am in regular position to see and be seen typing in my passwords.

When implemented on a larger, stationary scree, though, I’m not sure if it’s much more secure than just showing the password unmasked. Anyone watching over-the-shoulder or with some camera rig as described above could catch the password easily, without the user having the recourse of being able to move or shield the display.