August 12, 2005

Stanford U. Researchers Develop a Tool to Help Prevent Password Theft

By VINCENT KIERNAN

Researchers at Stanford University have developed an add-on for Web browsers that they say could drastically reduce the risk of passwords' being intercepted by hackers.

The program, called PwdHash, runs along with a traditional Web browser. When a user types a password into a Web page -- whether to establish an account or, later, to gain access to that account -- PwdHash encrypts the typed password before sending it on to the Web site.

PwdHash was developed by Dan