New Conference Paper (Science of Cyber Security) Credits RMS With Delaying Passwords
Richard Stallman (RMS) is mentioned in the above (new) article. "In 1977," it says, "there was even a no-password-campaign at MIT, where its initiator Richard Stallman successfully delayed the introduction of passwords..."
Richard Stallman recognised what would happen or how 'security' would evolve. Nowadays even GAFAM tell us it's time to get rid of passwords. For all sorts of reasons (e.g. password recovery reducing the social engineering hacks or "attack surface" to merely hijacking identity or tricking people by E-mail, as people lose track or forget passwords, resulting in customer support workload where authenticity cannot be easily verified).
The solution put forth by GAFAM is even worse (more control but them), but this is not the point. When it comes to passwords, RMS was "right".
In the US, the authorities can get around passwords by making physical threats, not only conspiring with GAFAM for back doors. The solution is trusted software (Free software), not "better" passwords or more passwords. █