With the digital-first reality of the modern day, teams are now more scattered than ever before. The wider adoption of remote working, worldwide distributed teams, and complex interconnected workflows has created an urgent need for the secure exchange of credentials such as passwords and secrets. Secrets are sensitive digital credentials, such as passwords, API keys, and encryption keys, used to authenticate and secure machine-to-machine access to IT systems and data, for example for automated DevOps workflows.
Legacy solutions for sharing credentials, such as spreadsheets, consumer-grade password managers, or even messaging apps, are no longer sustainable. These antiquated practices expose organizations to severe security risks, inefficiencies, and compliance problems. Inefficient credential collaboration can lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and business downtime. As regulatory requirements continue to intensify, organizations must prioritize secure, scalable, and transparent credential management solutions that serve the demands of the contemporary workplace.
Key Collaboration Challenges in Modern TeamsModern workplaces rely on a mix of employees, contractors, and external partners who all require different levels of access to company credentials. Managing these access rights securely without inhibiting business effectiveness is a complex challenge. Organizations must adopt a fine-grained approach to credential sharing to prevent unauthorized access while facilitating productivity.
Many businesses operate with separate systems for different kinds of credentials. IT teams might use one solution for SSH keys, API tokens, and database credentials, while business teams manage logins for CRM, financial or human resources systems, and marketing tools elsewhere. This fragmented approach with siloed solutions creates security gaps, inefficiencies, and compliance headaches. A unified credential management solution has the potential to eliminate these issues.
Without proper credential collaboration measures in place, organizations face numerous security threats, including:
Unauthorized access: Weak or shared passwords can be exploited by cybercriminals.
Credential leaks: Storing credentials in plaintext files or unsecured locations increases exposure.
Lack of auditability: Without visibility into who accessed which credentials and when, tracking security incidents becomes difficult.
Poorly structured credential collaboration slows teams down. Employees waste time searching for credentials, requesting access, asking a colleague how to best share it, or resetting forgotten passwords. Small groups may manage credentials manually, but as an organization grows, so do the complexities of access management. Without software-based automation and governance, businesses risk operational bottlenecks, security risks, and non-compliance with industry regulations.
Organizations have different security and compliance demands, which influence their choice between cloud-based (SaaS) and on-premises credential management solutions. While SaaS solutions take away the burden of software maintenance, on-premises deployments provide full control over data residency, security policies, and compliance with regulatory frameworks.
With increasing regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2, organizations must have transparency and control over credential access. A credential collaboration solution must support audit trails, access logs, and role-based access (RBAC).
Practical use Cases for Secure Credential SharingThe below scenarios reflect the importance of sophisticated credential collaboration software.
For example, upon the departure of an employee, revoking shared credentials is a top priority. Individual accounts (e.g., Google or Microsoft) can be easily revoked, but shared credentials pose a greater challenge. If not properly managed, a former employee may retain access to critical systems, increasing the risk of data breaches. A departing employee might still have access to shared credentials, thus posing a potential security threat. Organizations need systematic policies to manage credential revocation efficiently.
A secure credential sharing system should offer:
Password expiration capabilities: Administrators can revoke access immediately or set expiration dates in advance.
Selective password rotation: Instead of resetting all shared credentials, organizations can identify and rotate only those used by the former employee.
Compliance benefits: Automated alerts and enforced expiration policies ensure governance and regulatory compliance.
Imagine another situation: when a coworker is out on vacation, teams may face challenges accessing critical accounts protected by multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA is a security method that requires a second verification step in addition to a password, which is usually provided by a time-based one-time password (TOTP) generator. This typically means that when logging into an account, such as email, cloud storage, or business software, the user must give a second form of verification.
Reliable credential collaborationOne of the most familiar examples of MFA is entering a verification code received via SMS. Consider logging into an online company system, and after entering the correct password, the system requests a code sent to the mobile number registered for MFA. If the phone is with the vacationing colleague, they would have to be contacted in order to relay the code, causing delays and inefficiencies. Moreover, sharing the code through unsecured channels like email or messaging apps could expose it to interception, increasing security risks.
Thus, a reliable credential collaboration system should have:
MFA credential delegation: Secure ways of sharing temporary or emergency MFA access so that if a team member is unavailable, authorized colleagues can safely retrieve the required MFA codes.
Audit logs and access monitoring: Ensuring all TOTP sharing actions and access attempts are tracked for security and compliance.
Essential Requirements for a Credential Collaboration SolutionBesides the specific credential collaboration features outlined above, the following general considerations should be taken into account when selecting a software solution for your organization.
A highly modern security architecture provides maximum protection against threats. The most robust approach today is private-public key cryptography, which ensures secure authentication, encryption, and data integrity.
Organizations must use role-based permissions (RBAC) and the principle of least privilege (PoLP) so that workers only have access to the credentials they need. This minimizes risk and enhances security posture.
A secure credential management system must encrypt credentials in transit and at rest, thereby introducing a so-called zero Knowledge architecture. This ensures that even if data gets intercepted or compromised, it remains inaccessible to unauthorized parties.
Teams need the ability to share credentials securely without compromising usability. A credential collaboration tool should make sharing simple while enforcing access controls to constrain risk.
Logging and reportingComprehensive and detailed logging and reporting features provide organizations with visibility into credential usage. This assists with security monitoring, breaches investigation, and regulatory compliance.
Credential collaboration needs to seamlessly fit into existing DevOps pipelines, cloud environments, and enterprise IT infrastructures. Integrations with tools such as CI/CD systems, cloud platforms, LDAP, Single Sign-On (SSO) and identity providers streamline operations and enhance security.
A credential management solution needs to support small teams as well as scaling to meet the needs of large enterprises. Automated provisioning, centralized access control, and robust governance capabilities ensure long-term sustainability.
Organizations should have the freedom to choose between cloud-based and on-premises solutions based on their security and compliance requirements.
Unlike proprietary solutions, open source credential management tools provide full transparency into how credentials are stored and managed. Independent audits ensure that security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed promptly.
Organizations that must conform to strict privacy laws should have authority over where their credential data is stored. Hosting in GDPR-regulated regions ensures compliance and increased legal safeguards.
Frustration with Legacy Tools Leads to Risky WorkaroundsSoftware users expect intuitive, user-friendly applications. When faced with legacy, cumbersome credential management software, such as business password managers and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, they often become disappointed. These systems are usually too inflexible, complex, and difficult to onboard. Thus, they suffer from low user adoption.
When usability suffers, members of the team may resort to insecure workarounds, such as keeping credentials in spreadsheets or sending them over unsecured channels, which undermine security efforts. To prevent this, organizations must transition to modern, agile credential management solutions that:
If organizations fail to modernize their credential management strategy, they are not only at risk of security breaches, but also poor utilization rates, which drives users back to insecure workarounds. It’s imperative to balance the need for strong security against easy usability in order to keep teams on board with secure credential collaboration.
How to Select the Right Credential Collaboration ToolIn short: Selecting the right credential collaboration tool requires careful evaluation of your organization's unique needs and security profile.
Team size and security requirements: Identify the size of your operation and the sensitivity of the credentials.
Integration requirements: Does the tool allow for integration with existing workflows and platforms?
Compliance necessities: Verify compatibility with industry regulations.
Usability vs. security: Balance ease of use with stringent security controls.
Cost-effectiveness: Evaluate pricing against feature sets and long-term needs.
For organizations handling sensitive data, self-hosting in jurisdictions with strong privacy laws offers greater security, regulatory compliance, and control over data residency.
We showcase the best identity management software.
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AI art generation has been evolving at a wild pace, and Google just threw another big contender into the mix through its Gemini Flash 2.0. You can play with the new image creation tool in Google's AI Studio.
Gemini Flash is, as the name suggests, very fast, notably faster than DALL-E 3 and other image creators. That speed might mean lower quality images, but that's not the case here, especially because all of the changes and upgrades to the model's image production ability. Still, if you want really good results, you must know how to talk to the AI. After plenty of trial and error, I've put together five tips for getting the absolute best art out of Gemini Flash 2.0. Some of these may seem similar to advice about other AI art creators, because they are, but that doesn't make them less useful in this context.
Tell a story (Image credit: Created with Google Gemini)The most interesting new feature for Gemini Flash's image creation is that it isn’t just good for one-off illustrations, it can actually help you create a visual story by generating a series of related images with consistent style, settings, and moods.
To get started, you just have to ask it to tell you a story and how often you want an illustration to go with the action. The result will include those images accompanying the text.
For my project, I asked the AI to "Generate a story of a heroic baby dragon who protected a fairy queen from an evil wizard in a 3d cartoon animation style. For each scene, generate an image." I saw the above start to appear. And, if there's an issue, you can rewrite any of the bits of the story and the model will regenerate the image accordingly.
Be super specific (Image credit: Created with Google Gemini)If you tell Gemini to make “a dog in a park,” you might get a blurry golden retriever sitting somewhere vaguely green. But if you say, “A fluffy golden retriever sitting on a wooden bench in Central Park during autumn, with red and orange leaves scattered on the ground”—you get exactly what you’re picturing.
AI models thrive on detail. The more you provide, the better your image will be. So for the image above, instead of just asking for a futuristic looking city, I requested "A retro-futuristic cityscape at sunset, with neon signs glowing in pink and blue, flying cars in the sky, and people walking in retro-future style outfits." Seven seconds later, the result came in.
Get conversational (Image credit: Google Gemini Flash 2.0)One of my favorite things about the new Gemini Flash is that you can get conversational with it without losing much of the speed. That means you don’t have to get everything right in one go. After generating an image, you can literally chat with the AI to make edits. Want to change the colors? Add a character? Make the lighting moodier? Just ask.
In the image set above, I started by asking for "A cozy reading nook with a fireplace, bookshelves filled with novels, and a big comfy armchair." I then refined it by asking it to "Make it nighttime with soft, warm lighting," then followed up by asking it to "Add a sleeping cat on the armchair," and finished by requesting the AI "Give the room a vintage, Victorian aesthetic." The final result on the left looks almost exactly like what I imagined, and makes Gemini feel like an art assistant, one capable of adjusting to what I want without starting over from scratch every time.
Gemini Flash matches ChatGPT (Image credit: Created with Google Gemini)Google has boasted that Gemini is full of real-world knowledge, which means you can get historical accuracy, realistic cultural details, and true-to-life imagery if you ask for it. Of course, that requires being specific. For example, if you prompt it for “a Viking warrior,” you might get something that looks more like a Game of Thrones character. But if you say, “A historically accurate Viking warrior from the 9th century, wearing detailed chainmail armor, a round wooden shield, and a traditional Norse helmet”—you’ll get something much more precise.
As a test I asked the AI to make "An ancient Mayan city at sunrise, with towering stone pyramids, lush jungle surroundings, and people dressed in traditional Mayan garments." It's not perfect, but it looks a lot more like the real thing than previous versions, which would sometimes come back with almost an Egyptian pyramid.
Write fast (Image credit: Created with Google Gemini)Most AI image models have long struggled with rendering text, turning words into illegible scribbles. Even the better models today that can do so take a bit to do it and getting it right can take a few tries. But, Gemini Flash is shockingly good at integrating text into images quickly and legibly. Being very specific can help though.
That's how I generated the image above by asking the AI to "Make a vintage-style travel poster that says 'Visit London’ in bold, retro typography, featuring a stylized illustration of the city."
You might also like...High-end gaming and workstation laptop specialist Eurocom has just released a refresh of its flagship mobile supercomputer, the Raptor X18.
It is one of the fastest laptops ever built and will probably earn a well-deserved spot in our best mobile workstation buying guide.
Its base configuration runs on a Core Ultra 9 275HX, the fastest laptop processor from Intel and the top of the range model will set you back more than $15,000.
For that outlay, you get a mobile Nvidia Geforce RTX5090 GPU with 24GB GDDR7, 256GB of DDR5 RAM - the only one I know that can take that much memory - as well as four WD_Black 8TB PCIe Gen4 SSD configured in RAID-0.
As for previous mobile supercomputers, Eurocom has entrusted an ODM - most probably Clevo - with the design and manufacturing of what is, as of now, the most powerful laptop in the world.
The result is a practical, if underwhelming, finish with its true origins betrayed by the presence of an RGB Keyboard with individual key illumination, N-Key Rollover & anti-ghosting.
A mobile supercomputer can also be one of the best gaming laptops.
The 18-inch screen that completes its setup can be specced up to a UHD+ resolution (that's 3240 x 2400 pixels with a 16:10 aspect ratio).
Its 200Hz refresh rate shows that it can also be a decent gaming panel.
Where this laptop will be sorely lacking is battery life; even with a 99Whr battery, I don't expect users to be able to utilize this laptop, under load, for more than 60 minutes; consider the battery as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) instead.
That’s down to the presence of a power-hungry GPU and CPU (that demand up to 175W and 55W respectively) as well as four memory modules, a large screen and four SSDs.
You may also find its weight (7.9 lbs/3.6kg) and its dimensions (400 x 320 x 33mm) to be slightly overwhelming but then again it is more of a desktop replacement rather than a true laptop.
Raptor X18 vs 16-inch MacBook Pro (Image credit: Future)In comparison, the most powerful Apple laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, one of the best laptops ever built, has a maximum selling price of $7,199 when configured with 128GB of RAM and 8TB SSD.
The 1TB SSD version retails for a mere $4,999 or a third of the price of the X18.
The 275HX is the most powerful laptop CPU available right now reaching, on popular benchmark software Passmar, a CPU Mark of just over 61,000.
The 16-core M4 Max, Apple’s most powerful laptop CPU, delivers about 43,700 points, a 40% speed delta.
When compared to desktop counterparts, the 275HX comes ahead of the EPYC 74F3, a 3-year old server CPU from AMD that has the same number of cores but a TDP 4x higher.
Raptor X18 vs Workstation PC A stock picture of the Dell Precision mid-tower workstation (Image credit: Dell)There are other Core 9 Ultra 275HX laptops scheduled for release in the coming weeks but Eurocom’s laptop is the only one with four SODIMM slots.
I configured a popular workstation PC, the Precision 5860 to match the Raptor X18.
With a slower Intel Xeon W7-2495X CPU, a less capable Nvidia RTX 4500 Ada Generation professional GPU and four 4TB SSDs, Dell’s alter-ego came out with a shocking $15,700 price tag, without a 4K monitor.
The only saving grace for the desktop workstation is the 3-year basic onsite service with remote diagnosis Dell provides.
I love the fact that the X18 has not one but two 2.5GbE Ethernet ports, the first time I’ve seen this combination in a laptop, that’s in addition to Wi-Fi 7.
You might also likeOne of Dell’s latest monitors comes with a hefty price tag, but it’s a behemoth of a display.
The Dell Pro 75 Plus is, as the name suggests, a massive 75-inch 4k touchscreen display designed for more professional settings, such as an office space or meeting room. You probably could fit it into a home office space, but that might be overkill.
The new Pro 75 Plus is equipped with 20-point touch technology, and boasts 20W speakers alongside USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet capabilities. Similarly, the display includes exclusive access to Dell’s Screen Drop features and Dell Pro Micro integration, making it the “ultimate solution for enhancing productivity and engagement”, according to the company.
Looking for a cheaper option? We’ve got you coveredThe Pro 75 Plus also comes equipped with Crestron Connect and Crestron XiO Cloud options, Dell revealed, allowing for remote management and greater control via office network systems.
It certainly will be appealing to enterprises overhauling their in-house tech, but the price might be a major stumbling block, coming in at $ 3,999.
The Pro 75 Plus is by no means the priciest touchscreen display we’ve come across in recent years. TechRadarPro was impressed with the ViewSonic IFP9850 4K Ultra HD Display in 2020, for example.
The whopping 98-inch display still retails at $8,490, more than double the Dell monitor.
If you’re in the market for something cheaper, however, the ViewSonic ViewBoard IFP75G1 is a great option. Also measuring in at 75 inches, the interactive display will set you back half the price at $1,999, but this is part of a limited-time promotion.
The 4K UHD display has a few distinct advantages compared to its Dell counterpart, boasting a 40-point touch display, two 10W internal speakers, three HDMI ports, and a whopping nine USB ports.
Notably, the display also gives users the choice of a slot-in PC to really kick things up a notch, with Android and Windows options available.
You might also likeRather than take a look at what Apple is doing, Samsung could draw inspiration from the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi and offer a variable aperture on the main camera of the rumored Galaxy S26 Ultra.
This tip comes from reasonably reliable tipster Ice Universe, who, when posting on Chinese social media site Weibo, claimed that the ability to switch physically between apertures will return on the main rear camera of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Such a feature was last seen on the Galaxy S9, which could switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 to adjust the lens opening depending on lighting conditions.
The idea there was that the wider aperture (f/1/5) was used to let more light hit the camera sensor when the lighting conditions were darker at the expense of sharper photos with a deeper depth of field, while the higher (and smaller) aperture was used in brighter conditions where there was plenty of light hitting the sensor and allowed for sharper pictures with a greater depth of field.
This was a neat feature, but on phones with smaller sensors it was arguably a little moot, as there's generally a rather large depth of field on smartphones given how small a main camera's sensor is in relation to the size of the lens and its wide focal length.
A potentially exciting upgradeNevertheless, it would be one way to upgrade the 200-megapixel main camera found on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. And given recent Ultra models in the Galaxy S-series have larger sensors than a lot of older Galaxy phones, greater aperture control could be more noticeable.
It would also give the camera another physical function to help shape the photos it produces, and mean the next-generation Ultra might not be as reliant on algorithmic image processing.
Ice Universe didn’t note the aperture the Galaxy S26 Ultra could use, and such a feature wouldn’t be unique to the phone, as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has multiple variable apertures on its main camera, and the Huawei Mate 50 Pro also features a main camera with a variable aperture of f/1.4 and f/4. In our Xiaomi 14 Ultra review, tester Paul Hatton waxed lyrical about the quality of the phone’s camera and its apertures, so it would seem like a feature Samsung would be smart to copy.
The flipside is that such a feature could be more of a way to market the phone than yield any transformative results, especially as Samsung already makes one of the best camera phones around.
Time will tell if this rumor bears any fruit, but it’s one that got my attention and could inject a little more creativity in a range of Samsung phones that’s gotten overly iterative, in my opinion.
You might also likeA new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, March 13 (game #1144).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1145) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1145) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #1145) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
Quordle today (game #1145) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:
Quordle today (game #1145) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• B
• S
• G
• A
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #1145) - the answers (Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle, game #1145, are…
This was one of those unlucky days where I made all the wrong choices – ABODE instead of ADOBE, BIBLE instead of BELIE and SMEAR instead of SPEAR.
In hindsight, I also made the wrong choice with my start words, but on another day they could have worked perfectly.
You can’t win them all.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Daily Sequence today (game #1145) - the answers (Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1145, are…