Password Sharing Practices in Teams That Manage Computer Networks

Enterprise network devices, which tend to be protected by passwords are often managed by teams. Therefore, proper password sharing and maintenance are vital for network security. This thesis aims to investigate how network engineers share and store passwords in the workplace. To this end, we conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with network engineers from the US and India. Our results revealed that there is a wide variety of ways passwords are generated, shared, and stored. The majority of participants showed poor password sharing practices and a lack of awareness of company policy on the matter. Our results also showed that participants exercised greater caution when handling personal passwords they considered to be important. This suggests that network engineers would practice better password hygiene if educated about the importance of workplace password security. In addition, companies should establish standard procedures that make secure handling of enterprise network passwords a part of network engineers' workflow. We also make suggestions about how to ensure better storage, sharing, and generation of shared passwords in enterprise networks.