Where Password Management and the Social Web Meet - Announcing User Profiles

Combining Password Management with Social Networking is an awkward and tricky business. We here at Mitto have always held the privacy and security of our users as a foremost priority. Actually, it’s our core value and the reason we created Mitto! Nonetheless, one of Mitto’s core functionalities is the ability to share passwords between users. This is useful for businesses, organizations, teams and individuals  who need to securely share access to their online resources. Perhaps a web design firm needs to share FTP passwords between team members, or a fundraising boy scout troop needs to share access to their PayPal account. Mitto is the perfect and most secure way to handle this.

Up until now, while its always been possible to share your passwords, sites, and even your tags between users, we haven’t had a way to view the connections you have between yourself and other users. Therefore we are proud to announce user profiles in Mitto! These can be found under the people tab, and each user profile indicates the user’s contact info; how many passwords, sites, and tags they have in Mitto; and which items you share with them on Mitto.

You can set your profile up by going to the My Account section in Mitto, and clicking on the Profile tab.

In the future we will release new tools that will help you find your friends and colleagues on Mitto.

Mitto is your Cyber Monday Ally

Hey, e-Commerce commandos, Cyber Monday is almost upon us. Did you know that Mitto is not only the best tool to handle your security when logging on to your favorite online retailers, but it’s also a great way to get deals!

On Monday, many of you will be logging to Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, and countless other online retailers. By using your Mitto Bookmarklet or Browser Extension, you’ll be able to login quickly and safely, cutting down on the stress of having to remember your passwords to all of these websites (you do have different passwords for each of them, right?).

Also, by logging via Mitto we’ll use our deal scavenging resources to show you all the best deals available for any given retailer. It’s all just a click away. When you open your Mitto Bookmarklet or Browser Extension, just click on the Deals tab, and save money!

Happy Holiday Shopping Mitto users!

Longer Mitto Sessions on Private Computers

Most of our users start out their day by firing up their Mitto account, then logging into their various personal and professional web apps. As they continue through their routine they’ll come across the need  to log in to another of their web-based services using a Mitto Browser Extension or the Bookmarklet, but uh-oh –  they logged into Mitto an hour earlier, and now they have to re-login because their session has expired.

Well, not anymore! If you’ve logged into Mitto on a private computer, you can now adjust the amount of time your Mitto session will stay open before it expires. This means that if you at home or at work on your workstation, your Mitto session can stay open for as long as 6 hours without activity! This helps you stay productive.

All you need to do is login to your Mitto account, and access your account settings, by clicking “My Account” from the top menu. On the My Account Settings page, you’ll find the setting under Settings > Timeout for Private Sessions.

Mitto has always provided different lengths of time for user sessions depending on whether they were logged into a public or private computer. Sessions on public computers are much shorter, just 20 min. with the logic that you don’t want your Mitto account accessible to people on a public computer in case you walk away on forget to logout. Now you can customize your private sessions expiration time according to your security and productivity needs.

Using different passwords for all of your websites: a medical analogy

Recently, while watching an episode of the medical TV series Grey’s Anatomy with some friends, one of my friends asked me why it was so important to use different passwords for every website. Since the friend was in the medical profession, and we were watching a show about surgeons, I thought, let’s make an attempt at a medical analogy. The conversation went something like this:

Me:

Would you want a surgeon to use the same exact bandages from one patient to another? I mean the same exact piece of cloth.

Friend:

Probably not

Me::

Why not?

Friend:

Well because they might be dirty or infected?

Me:

Why is that a bad thing?

Friend:

One patient could get another patient sick?

Me::

What if the doctor is really careful? Say they check to make sure there is no disease on the bandages?

Friend:

It still seems like a better idea to use new, different bandages on every patient.

Me:

Well, it’s the same with passwords and websites. Think of your passwords as the bandages, and your websites as the patients. When you use the same passwords [bandages] on all your websites [patients], if one website [patient] is compromised [sick], then all the other websites [patients] are at risk as well because you are using the same password [bandage].  Let’s extend this a bit. When someone in the hospital gets a highly contagious sickness, what do you do?

Friend:

We isolate them and take extra precautions so that the sickness doesn’t spread to anyone else.

Me:

So you are isolating the patient so that they can’t get other patients sick, correct?

Friend:

Yes.

Me:

Well, when you use different passwords, that’s what you are doing as well, isolating potential problems.  You see, whether someone gets your password from looking over your shoulder while you type, or they get your password because they steal it from a site that doesn’t protect your information, the outcome to you is the same. If you use the same password on all of your sites, someone who has access to the password for one site, has access to all of your sites. This is why you should use different passwords for each of your sites.

Friend:

Ok, that makes sense. But then how is putting all my passwords in one place, like in Mitto, safer?

Me:

That’s a great question. So when surgeons prepare for surgery, what do they do to protect a patient from getting an infection?

Friend:

They scrub in.

Me:

So they wash their hands. What else?

Friend:

They wear gloves, protective masks, and head coverings.

Me:

And?

Friend:

They use sterile equipment, they prep the area on the patient where the surgery will happen.

Me:

And.

Friend:

They work in a sterile operating room. You know, a number of other things.

Me:

So they do a number of things?

Friend:

Yes.

Me:

Why not just wash their hands?

Friend:

That’s not necessarily enough.

Me:

Exactly. They go through a number of steps to protect the patient, and the same is true with Mitto. To access a Mitto account, a person always needs to go through at least two layers of protection. If someone gets your Mitto password, that’s not enough for them to access your account. They’re going to need to also have enter a unique code which is sent to your cell phone, answer additional security questions, or have access to your remembered private computer. There are several security steps taken to protect your information.

Friend:

OK. That does make it more difficult to gain access to my Mitto account. But if someone got my password, and also got a hold of my cell phone, they could get into my account, right? I mean, the extra steps are still potentially beatable?

Me:

Yes. But let me ask you this? If given the choice to have an operation in an operating room where multiple protections were in place or in just a room that was just cleaned, which would you chose?

Friend:

The operating room.

Me:

As would I, since they take a number of steps to protect me as a patient from getting an infection. As far as it goes in the online world, there is no one thing alone that provides sufficient security for your passwords, and so the best way to protect them is securing them with many layers of protection. That’s what Mitto does for you and your passwords.

Friend:

OK, so I can see now why it makes sense to use different passwords. Before Mitto, there is no way I would have been able to do that AND remember them all.

Me:

Great! Just make sure that you never use your Mitto password for anything else.

Zombies in area!…Run - the hacking of a road sign password

“Zombies in area! …run.” That was the message that drivers in Austin, Texas saw on an electronic construction sign on the side of the road early last year. According to news reports, “hackers” had broken into the sign (which are rarely ever locked), and then “hacked” the password of the computer inside to reset the message. You can see the news report below.

The reality is that tampering with the computer inside is way too easy. In order to change the text on most electronic road signs, all you need to know is the default password (DOTS), which is rarely ever changed. To make matters worse, if the default password has been changed, holding “shift” and “control” while typing “DIPY” will reset the password to DOTS. A simple Internet search will turn up step-by-step guides like these.

While many of you will find this funny, we warn you against tampering with any signs. You should never tamper with a road sign. It’s a misdemeanor crime in most states, and can create potential public safety issues.