Security vulnerabilities in mass produced Point-of-Sale terminals have potentially allowed cyber criminals to steal credit card details en masse, leaving the average consumer out of pocket.

The bottom line is that usernames and passwords are not a safe method for authentication, whether for PoS terminals or social media accounts. Consumers and enterprises still struggle to change their reliance on the password model.

This latest vulnerability underlines just how flawed the model is, as one insecure device protected by a default password on a connected network makes every connected device vulnerable. That is why many device manufacturers are moving to stronger authentication models like PKI.