Apparatus and method for multi-threaded password management

Abstract

An apparatus and method for multi-threaded password management are provided. With the apparatus and method, resources may be grouped into families of resources. A family of resources is defined as a group of resources that may make use of the same password. When a user sets a new password for a family of resources, all of the passwords for each of the resources in the family are reset to this new password. That is, the multi-threaded password management apparatus and method spawns threads to reset the passwords of the other resources in the family. In this way, a single operation of resetting a password for a resource in the family may cause a plurality of passwords to be reset. Moreover, the passwords need only be reset when the earliest reset time of the resources in the family occurs. Thus, the number of passwords that must be memorized by a user is significantly reduced. Furthermore, the number of times that passwords need be reset is also reduced due to the resetting of passwords on a group level.