MP's sharing passwords

General
7th December 2017 MP's sharing passwords

Wow, just wow. Some MP's have admitted to sharing login details to their work computers, even with interns. Who cares about general security right?

Nadine Dorries - MP for Mid Bedfordshire, even went so far as to say that a "frequent shout" in her office was "What is the password?" Absolutely crazy. The best part though was her complaint that the BBC's "claim that the computer on Greens desk was accessed and therefore it was Green is utterly preposterous" in his porn scandal. It's not really preposterous though is it? It's his computer, his login and password, and so his responsibility. If you share that information then it's your responsibility. It's also a great reason why you shouldn't be sharing passwords. Ultimately, whatever is done on someone's work account is the account owners problem - if an Intern sends an abusive email from their account, how are they to know who sent that email? Who gets in trouble when it could be a number of people? Do they just hope that someone confesses? Punish everyone or no one?

The main excuse was hilarious though. It's so that other people can access their emails and set up meetings/appointments for them on their calendars. Assuming that they're using Windows and Microsoft Office, that is an awful excuse as Delegate Access is a thing and isn't difficult to set up in the slightest, and it would also allow traceability on who sent emails. Even if they're not using Windows, Delegate Access is still a thing. You don't need to share your passwords with anyone and you retain that element of security.

The lack of general security from some of our countries MP's is outstanding. Especially when you consider some of the confidential information they have access to. Personally, I'd fire anyone that has admitted to it for a gross breach of privacy by allowing others access and potentially opening them up to a huge shitstorm. The good news is, I'm yet to see anyone other than a few other MP's actually agreeing with this practice. Everyone is complaining about it, even some other MP's who at least know a slither of basic IT security, like not sharing passwords.