squareCircleZ

In a recent newsletter, Elliott Masie railed against “password craziness”.

No More Passwords – Time for a Keychain!
It is time for us to stop the password craziness. Not only is it hard to remember your dozens of passwords, it is also not very secure. A modest alternative is to use a plug in USB key that would validate who we are at that computer. The key could add biometric validation such as a fingerprint or could have a one instance password. The fewer passwords that are sent in the open space of the internet the better and this could go a long way in reducing spam and scams.

I fully agree with him and wrote about it before in End of Passwords in Sight?

Elliott’s idea is not new and possible right now.

Recently, banks in Singapore have required customers to use “2FA” (2-factor authentication) for Internet transactions. For one bank, they send me an SMS message with a code number which adds another password, but I don;t need to remember it.

For the other bank, they sent me a small gizmo (about the size of a thumb drive) and I need to obtain a number from that device and input it after the normal login to the bank’s site. (I’m still thinking about how this works. Presumably there are a set of pre-defined numbers that appear randomly on the device and they need to match what the bank’s numbers are.)

Either method, would help to reduce the requirement of passwords for every site we ever visit.

I’m so sick of the plethora of passwords I have to remember – all in different formats. We often cannot use the same one more than once (yeah I know, you aren’t supposed to anyway…).

Related posts:

1. An end to passwords in sight? Passwords are driving me nuts. Let’s see how many I’ve...
2. An explanation for slow Internet banking I remain unsatisfied with the reasons for slow Internet-based banking...
3. Speed of light? How come when you pay a bill via Internet banking,...
4. Friedman & HeyMath – but how do you get in? Thomas Friedman was in Singapore recently to deliver a talk...
5. Useful math – annuities Most students have no idea why they have to study...