, 2004-11-19
Bill Gates is right about one thing: asking people to use a two-factor form of authentication would go a long way toward alleviating a lot of the password problems that plague computer security today.
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If so (single authentication method for the world), who will validate me? (using biometrics or whatever) - Is there going to be some central/world server that validates my credentials, and passes a token (or whatever) back to the site that is attempting to validate me saying yes, he is who he says he is? Who owns this central authentication server?. Are we not talking about another form of passport all over again. (Private or open, nobody is going to buy into it)
It doesn't matter if the validation standards used are open. I'm not doing this central authentication method, therefore, my thumb print and Multiple smart cards. Therefore, it doesn't matter if there is an open standard e.g. My Visa smart card and my thumb for Visa payments (using standard X), My IBM smart card and my thumb for IBM.com (using standard Z) etc etc you get the idea...
i.e. Biometrics get's us around remembering multiple passwords - regardless of standards. (the caveat being federation. i.e. IBM trust what Visa says, but IBM ain't gonna trust Oracle, so once again, multiple cards (regardless of startdards))
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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/277/29196#29196