How could GitHub improve the password security of its users?
20th November 2013
My answer to How could GitHub improve the password security of its users? on Quora
By doing exactly what they’re doing already: adding more sophisticated rate limiting, and preventing users from using common weak passwords.
Their account security practices are already best-in-industry: they support two-factor authentication and their “Security History” interface at https://github.com/settings/secu... is the best I’ve seen on any website.
The way they store passwords (correctly, using bcrypt) had nothing to do with this particular security incident.
More recent articles
- A new SQL-powered permissions system in Datasette 1.0a20 - 4th November 2025
- New prompt injection papers: Agents Rule of Two and The Attacker Moves Second - 2nd November 2025
- Hacking the WiFi-enabled color screen GitHub Universe conference badge - 28th October 2025