The Espionage

Many people are too scared to use a password manager because they do not trust the service. I will show you a trick to get of all the privacy you shall ever need. We will use partial passwords. Partial passwords are the power supreme!

Step 1 - Edit Passwords at the Real Websites:

Let’s say I have an E-trade account. Say my E-trade username is Stockinator and my password is m@dddMONEY. Those are decent credentials. Now I establish my partial password. Use the partial password as a suffix which goes on the end of the normal password. I used to have a 1997 Camry (not really). 1997camcam sounds pretty good. I log in to E-trade. I change my password from m@dddMONEY to m@dddMONEY1997camcam. Now we are talking password, baby! Repeat this process at other websites of importance. Remember, we haven’t touched the Password Manager yet.

Step 2 - Edit Passwords On The Password Manager:

I clicked on a Google Ad that said “Store Your Passwords Online With The Devil”. Sure why not. So I signed up and put all of my credentials in my online account at satan-stores-passwords.com. When I added E-trade to my favorites, I entered my username as Stockinator and my password as m@dddMONEY. Months later a scandal breaks. Turns out satan-stores-passwords.com was running a shady operation. Who knew? All of my accounts are compromised. Not quite, broseph. My real password over at E-trade is m@dddMONEY1997camcam. My E-trade account is safe. I was storing a partial password. I can get even sexier. I could store my partial password as a fake password in a fake favorite. Now I don’t even have to remember it. Well sort of. I still have to remember which favorite is the fake. You get the point.

Advantages of Partial Passwords:

• Eliminate the need to trust the password manager.
• Critical passwords become twice as strong.

Disadvantages:

• One more thing to remember.
• Problems with any kind of automated authentication.

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Trinity: Morpheus believes he is the one.
Cypher: Do you?
Trinity: It doesn’t matter what I believe.
Cypher: You don’t, do you?
Trinity: Did you hear that?
Cypher: Hear what?
Trinity: Are you sure this line is clean?
Cypher: Yeah, of course I’m sure.
Trinity: I better go.

Are you sure this line is clean? What line? What does that even mean? Let’s use The Matrix to further define identity systems.

Remember our definition of identity? An identity is the perception of an entity by a witness within the context of space time. When Trinity asks Cipher if the line is clean in the beginning of The Matrix, she is really asking Cipher if there are any unwanted witnesses. Have you ever excused yourself from the room because of a cell phone conversation? Why did you do that? You did that because the secrets exchanged in the conversation were to be shielded from unwanted witnesses. This is privacy. Security is the shield for doing so. In this case, what shield is used? Simply space time. Relocating puts unwanted witnesses out of earshot. The shield is not always that simple.

Internet transactions generally rely on the Secure Sockets Layer (or SSL) to exchange secrets. SSL depends on encryption for its shield. Data is encrypted on the origin computer by a key. The encrypted message is then sent over the channel. The destination decrypts the message by the same key. This is how the internet shields its private messages.

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