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> The glitch was related to Twitter’s use of a technology known as “hashing” that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them with numbers and lette

> The glitch was related to Twitter’s use of a technology known as “hashing” that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them with numbers and letters, according to the blog. Sigh. They appear to have confused hashing with asterisks. > A bug caused the passwords to be written on an internal computer log before the hashing process was completed, the blog said. So "related" in almost no way whatsoever, then? The state of technology reporting in the mainstream press really makes me despair sometimes.

Johnny555 9y ago
The state of technology reporting in the mainstream press really makes me despair sometimes. The problem is that the mainstream press writes for mainstream users, and the state of science/technology understanding in the general public is the real problem.
- oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
  I hear what you're saying, but I think — in this case — the article's just giving too much irrelevant information. I think most mainstream users I know would understand it if it were written something like: > A bug caused passwords to be written on an internal computer log, the blog said.
  - danso 9y ago
    Understand what, exactly? I don't believe most users understand that passwords aren't necessarily stored in plaintext (on a system log, or in a database).
  - stordoff 9y ago
    I'm not sure many users would understand the issue from just that - a perfectly reasonable (albeit inaccurate) reaction to that would be "Of course Twitter store my passwords - otherwise how can I log in?".
taco_emoji 9y ago
This is the phrasing from Twitter's actual blog post[0]: > We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system. Which is slightly better, I guess. [0] https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/keeping-your-account-secure.html https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/...
- danjc 9y ago
  I'm really not sure that's better. They're not using "masking" and "random" in the way those words would normally be interpreted.
danso 9y ago
> Sigh. They appear to have confused hashing with asterisks. No they didn't. Or else the excerpt you quoted would have said literally that, i.e. > The glitch was related to Twitter’s use of a technology known as “hashing” that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them with asterisks. While the description of "hashing" is tortured, it seems to be technically correct, if you don't make specific assumptions about the phrase "that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them". But yes, the normal interpretation of the present tense would be that the characters are being hashed as the user types in the password, rather than after the form submission.

Johnny555 9y ago

The state of technology reporting in the mainstream press really makes me despair sometimes. The problem is that the mainstream press writes for mainstream users, and the state of science/technology understanding in the general public is the real problem.

oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
I hear what you're saying, but I think — in this case — the article's just giving too much irrelevant information. I think most mainstream users I know would understand it if it were written something like: > A bug caused passwords to be written on an internal computer log, the blog said.
- danso 9y ago
  Understand what, exactly? I don't believe most users understand that passwords aren't necessarily stored in plaintext (on a system log, or in a database).
- stordoff 9y ago
  I'm not sure many users would understand the issue from just that - a perfectly reasonable (albeit inaccurate) reaction to that would be "Of course Twitter store my passwords - otherwise how can I log in?".

taco_emoji 9y ago

This is the phrasing from Twitter's actual blog post[0]: > We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system. Which is slightly better, I guess. [0] https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/keeping-your-account-secure.html https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/...

danjc 9y ago
I'm really not sure that's better. They're not using "masking" and "random" in the way those words would normally be interpreted.

danso 9y ago

> Sigh. They appear to have confused hashing with asterisks. No they didn't. Or else the excerpt you quoted would have said literally that, i.e. > The glitch was related to Twitter’s use of a technology known as “hashing” that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them with asterisks. While the description of "hashing" is tortured, it seems to be technically correct, if you don't make specific assumptions about the phrase "that masks passwords as a user enters them by replacing them". But yes, the normal interpretation of the present tense would be that the characters are being hashed as the user types in the password, rather than after the form submission.