Is the End Coming for Passwords?
Posted by aonenetworks On December 9, 2014
How many passwords do you have? If you are like most of us, there are more than you can count. You regularly enter the wrong password or forget it entirely. This has become a way of life for virtually everybody as we live in this digital age. One of the most alarming aspects of passwords is exactly how often they are stolen. Each and every day we hear more and more stories of security breaches at companies as hackers continually attack systems in an attempt to get your username and password.
However, the end of passwords and the headaches they can bring could be coming with several new security systems currently being tested.
Facial Recognition
One of the easiest methods available to security firms is by making use of recent advances in facial recognition software. Used along with the webcam available on most devices today, your account could eventually be linked with the details of our face. In order to log in, all you would have to do is simply look at your camera and the systems would do the rest.
Voice Authorization
Much like facial recognition, voice authorization systems could take advantage of the built in microphone capabilities found on most laptops and mobile devices to form a unique vocal print. To log in, a user must speak into the computer microphone and your speech pattern would be matched to the one stored on the system.
Digital Portraits
One of the more complex systems currently being proposed, computers would create a digital portrait of you based on how you react to certain questions, your image on a webcam, your voice, and even areas on the screen where you click. All this information is combined to create a complex digital portrait of who you are and is used each time you attempt to log in. While this system is more complex and, undoubtedly, expensive, it represents one of the most secure methods of protection as it uses a large amount of very different data in the authentication process.
Passwords Still King
The fact remains that the traditional username and password method of authentication is still the most widely used and will remain so for quite some time, due mainly to the fact that password protected systems are much easier to configure and much more cost effective when compared to the new forms of authentication. At the same time they still provide users with a reasonable amount of protection and security for their cost, making many companies reluctant to adopt some of the newer, more secure forms of authentication.
While usernames and passwords are likely to continue as the major security feature put in place by most companies, with the continued attacks by hackers trying to steal this information there is little doubt that change is coming. As the technology for these new systems continues to develop and mature and the costs begin to drop, more and more companies will begin to adopt these systems as they attempt to secure the data of their customers and employees so that they do not fall victim to the next big data breach.
