Friday, March 27, 2009

Forgot Password Best Practices v2

I just finished an update of my white paper that describes best practices for creating a secure "forgot password" feature. There are two important additions to the paper.
  • A section to describe an extra step that can be taken to provide even more protection. This step involves using email as an out-of-band communication channel.
  • A paragraph to explain that the recommendations may not be feasible for all web sites. The concepts presented in the paper are most relevant for organizations that have a business relationship with users.
I also dumped of "Billy Bob" as the name of the hypothetical user in favor of "Joe". I grew tired of the campy name and don't want to imply that users are stupid or unsophisticated, even though some could perhaps accurately be characterized in that way.