From a computer-security perspective, the best Internet passwords are long and unique to one website, and contain a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters. Unfortunately, abiding by these guidelines can make logging in to different websites a challenging memory test. Password management tools are one solution for people who can't keep all their passwords straight, but these tools can pose their own security risks. Now researchers have found a way to make some of these systems more secure.
Typically, a bookmarklet-based password manager stores passwords for a user's favorite websites on a central server somewhere. The next time the user visits one of those sites, he simply clicks on the bookmarklet to log in. "When the user clicks a bookmarklet, they've indicated that they want to release a password to the browser," says Jackson. "The question is, which one?"
Fortunately, Adida and his team found a solution to the problem that was also easy to implement. Instead of checking the browser window's location, they suggest checking another attribute: the referrer header. As long as the bookmarklet uses a standard data transfer protocol known as a secure socket layer (SSL), the header cannot be easily forged.
Of the six bookmarklet companies contacted by the research team, five decided to implement the solution: Verisign, MyVidoop, Clipperz, PassPack, and MashedLife. The sixth company opted to warn its customers about the problem instead of fixing it as the researchers suggested.
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21907/?a=f"Integrity" and "integer" both contain a Latin root meaning "whole; complete." The root sense, then, is that people may be said to be acting with integrity when their beliefs, words, and actions have a sense of unity or wholeness.
or is this not secure?
