Netflix made waves this week after saying that it could begin the method of squelching password-sharing with folks outdoors of 1’s particular family. Whereas the information sparked dismay for the various who provide their dad and mom, budget-minded buddies, and grownup kids entry to their Netflix streaming accounts, safety consultants word the transfer presents account safety upsides.

In a Netflix company weblog submit, the streaming large particularly referred to as out these situations the place the identical set of credentials is used routinely at separate dwelling addresses: “Your Netflix account is for you and the folks you reside with — your family.” It then warned that it could boot offending accounts or take different motion to make sure that every family is paying for its personal subscription.

Many famous that this anti-sharing stance is an about-face for the corporate’s place, on condition that in 2017 it tweeted, “Love is sharing a password.” However consecutive quarters of underwhelming revenue development do are likely to spur modifications at public firms, and it is clear that Netflix is just not resistant to shareholder strain as subscription development has stagnated.

Hidden Cybersecurity Lesson in Netflix’s Password Crackdown

Whereas the story could also be primarily a enterprise story, safety researchers word that the corporate is definitely coming in step with cybersecurity greatest practices — providing a golden instance of how business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations can foment higher account security amongst their prospects.

“Regardless that this can be a pure income play, the latest resolution to crackdown on password-sharing brings to gentle the numerous safety dangers related to this frequent apply,” says Craig Jones, vp of safety operations at Ontinue, noting that there are a selection of dangers related to password-sharing:

• Sharing a password undermines management over who has entry to an account, probably resulting in a larger danger of unauthorized use and account compromise;
• As soon as shared, a password will be additional distributed or modified, locking out the unique person;
• Worse but, if the shared password is used throughout a number of accounts, a malicious actor may achieve entry to all of them;
• And sharing passwords may make customers extra vulnerable to phishing and social engineering assaults.

“Netflix’s initiative serves as a reminder for different consumer-facing companies to coach their prospects about these dangers,” Jones says. “Clear communication in regards to the implications of password sharing is essential. Firms ought to emphasize that the implications can prolong past the shared account to some other accounts utilizing the identical password.”