Companies have been trying to help consumers secure data for several decades and passwords have been the primary way for users to authenticate themselves. It has worked somewhat satisfactorily, but there are problems. 

History has shown us that despite guidelines and security best practice recommendations, users use short and highly predictable passwords which they reuse on multiple services, accidentally share with other people (i.e. through a phishing/spoofing attack), or forget. Computing power has progressed to the point where humans are unable to remember passwords that are sufficiently long such that the computers can't crack them.

We can do better. HighSide doesn't need passwords and our app is more secure for it. Instead of using passwords we use private encryption keys.

If you are concerned with the security of your account on your physical computer, such as the possibility of someone accessing your HighSide account while you are physically away from your keyboard, we recommend using OS-level full-disk encryption and locking your computer whenever you step away. This allows you to encrypt your entire hard drive on the operating system level and is highly recommended. You can also lock down your HighSide app/account with several MFA options so an attacker with physical access to your computer still cannot access your HighSide account without additional factors of authentication. 

Most new versions of both OSX and Windows have full disk encryption utilities built-in for free. Users on other operating systems such as Linux have free options available to them as well.  

 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us for additional information.