Biometric Scan Is Set To Replace Passwords
The days of the password are numbered. For those who struggle to remember different passwords for different applications, or ignore advice and use the same password for everything, that probably cannot come too soon.
The FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance, a group of more than 150 companies, including software, hardware, mobile phone and security companies as well as banks, has been working on new international standards for IT security protection for a few years now.
Their aim, of introducing a more secure approach, is well overdue, given that logins plus passwords were first deployed in 1961. These have now been unsatisfactory for at least three decades of their five decade history.
The password-free approach now being developed by FIDO involves the use of biometrics such as fingerprint or retina recognition.
Some computers, tablets and phones already have fingerprint recognition built in and it is rumoured that retina scanning will be included in some phones currently under development.
A login request of the future will be met with request for a biometric scan.
For transactions needing highest security, connection through to a physical device, like a USB dongle supplied by a bank, would also be demanded, as a second line of defence.
Of course, these measures cannot be introduced until the technology is widely available.
Meanwhile, one company has just broken ranks and introduced its own new security solution.
Yahoo users in the USA can now request one time-only passwords on demand, sent to their mobile phone each time they want to login.
When they caught their breach from laughing some Net pundits considered this Yahoo innovation about as secure as ice sculpted piggy banks!
