A variation is to use ssh public keys to allow an account on one system to ssh into another system without supplying any password. At the very least, pick a moderately hard-to-crack password for your ssh keys. If you must have an automatic program use ssh without a password to ssh into another system, then create either a separate nonroot account on the target system or an alternate account with UID 0 but a login "shell" that does just what is needed, such as doing a backup.