Secure but memorable passwords are difficult to create and maintain, especially when creating longer passwords is one of the best ways to prevent brute force cracking attempts.
With California's new password legislation as a jumping off point for this discussion, and the fact that over 90% of Integrators we surveyed last year know the admin passwords at their customers, is there a process you go through when creating and assigning passwords to cameras, users, admin accounts, etc?
2 out of the 3 integrators I worked at used the same admin password, service passwords, and camera login passwords at every single customer (unless the customer dictated otherwise, which happened less than 10% of the time). From an alphanumeric standpoint, they were "medium" to "strong" passwords, but every camera at every site was the same.
The downside of creating individual and more complex passwords relates to servicing the system. Technicians will need to have access to a list or database of each individual password for each site. Customers will potentially create more service calls because of forgotten passwords.
Some VMSes allow users to set minimum password lengths, and complexity, for users, but not camera connection settings.
Commercially available password managers like LastPass, Dashlane, Keeper, and others create, store, and manage your passwords while keeping each one random and significantly long and complex. However, I suspect their use in surveillance is limited.
Does anyone use a password manager with their cameras or VMS? What is your method for creating, storing, and managing Admin and camera connection passwords?
