Single sign on

In the wake of the Facebook data breach(Source: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-security-breach-50-million-accounts/) that supposedly compromised 50 million accounts and other personal data last week,  it is but imperative to look at yet another aspect of ‘Information security’ – ‘Single sign on’.

What is ‘Single sign on’?

Remember, the time when you discovered a new website or app ? You had to register to get into the site. You were presented with these options:

                ‘Continue with Google’

                 ‘Continue with Facebook’

in addition to a lengthy sign up process. In a hurry to understand what the new craze was, you just signed in with your ‘Facebook’ or Google account information instead of going through the whole signing up rigmarole. This is ‘Single sign on’ wherein by just signing into Facebook or Google, you can access many other apps and sites with ease.

What is the downside of ‘Single sign on’?

It seems to be such an easy thing to do – just sign in with one account and we can access so many other sites with ease. So, what exactly is the problem? If you have signed into multiple accounts using Facebook or Google, when the main ‘sign on’  site gets hacked, it is quite a possibility that the other apps that use ‘Single sign’ on method of being authenticated would have their data breached too. 

So in essence, you are exposing all your data from the ‘main site’ and all subsequent sites too!

How do we ensure the safety of our data in the wake of the breach?

In case of the Facebook data breach, you would have definitely received appropriate messages and notifications if, your account was indeed hacked. In addition,it is  good to always:

1. Check ‘Settings’  in ‘Facebook’ and check the devices and locations where you are logged in from. Logout from all of them and re-login with a new password.
2. It is also good to login to each site/app with a separate login and password henceforth and give your memory a good workout! 🙂 (Seriously though, a password manager might be a good option to consider since it is difficult to remember multiple logins and passwords)
3. It is better to try two factor authentication to prevent further data loss.

These security tips will hold good for some time before the next breach occurs!