Fixing Authentication on Ancient Twitter

Let's roll back the clock a bit and indulge in a counterfactual exercise.  In class, I noted that Twitter was sanctioned by the FTC for a variety of authentication-related problems. Assume that you're a security specialist at Twitter and that you've discovered the problems before they become critical. That is, you've realized the issues with bad passwords, password storage, etc., before anyone has exploited the weak authentication and created mischief. Your job is to write a memo to top management explaining the problem, the risks, and your proposed solution.

However...

Top management—the CEO, the CFO, and the Board of Directors—is composed of very busy, semi-technical people. Therefore, your note may be at most two pages long (1" margins, no font smaller than 12-point). The note must explain:

• The problem
• The risks to the company if no fix is installed
• Your proposed fix
• The new hardware and/or software systems necessary. (In the real world, you'd have to give the costs and estimated time to complete the job. I'm not asking for that.)
• The risks to the company from deploying your solution
• Other alternatives and why you rejected them

Again: two pages max, written for a semi-technical audience.

This homework must be submitted via Courseworks as a PDF file.