Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Why passwords don't work, and what will replace them

"Sarah", an actor based in London, had her identity stolen in 2017. "I got home one day and found my post box had been broken into," she says.

"I had two new credit cards approved which I hadn't applied for, and a letter from one bank, saying we've changed our mind about offering you a credit card."

She spent £150 on credit checking services alone trying to track down cards issued in her name.

"It's a huge amount of work and money," says Sarah, who asked the BBC not to use her real name.

Identity theft is at an all-time high in the UK. The UK's fraud prevention service CIFAS recorded 190,000 cases in the past year, as our increasingly digitised lives make it easier than ever for fraudsters to get their hands on our personal information.

So how should we keep our identities secure online? The first line of defence is, more often than not, a password.

But these have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Facebook admitted in April that the passwords of millions of Instagram users had been stored on their systems in a readable format - falling short of the company's own best practices, and potentially compromising the security of those users.

Late last year, question-and-answer website Quora was hacked with the names and email addresses of 100 million users compromised. And Yahoo! recently settled a lawsuit over the loss of data belonging to 3 billion users, including email addresses, security questions and passwords.

No wonder that Microsoft announced last year that the company planned to kill off the password, using biometrics or a special security key.

IT research firm Gartner predicts that by 2022, 60% of large businesses and almost all medium-sized companies will have cut their dependence on passwords by half.

"Passwords are the easiest approach for attackers," says Jason Tooley, chief revenue officer at Veridium, which provides a biometric authentication service.

"People tend to use passwords that are easy to remember and therefore easy to compromise."

Not only would getting rid of passwords improve security, it would also mean IT departments would not have to spend valuable time and money resetting forgotten passwords.

"There is an annual cost of around $200 (£150) per employee associated with using passwords, not including the lost productivity," says Mr Tooley.

"In a large organisation that's a really significant cost."


'New risks'

Philip Black is commercial director at Post-Quantum, a company designing powerful encryption systems for protecting data.

He agrees that passwords are already a weak point. "You have to create and manage so many passwords. That's unmanageable, so people end up using the same passwords, and they become a vulnerability."

New rules laid down by the EU are designed to deal with that issue. The updated Payment Services Directive, known as PSD2 , require businesses to use at least two factors when authenticating a customer's identity.

These can be something the customer has in their possession (such as a bank card), something they know (such as a PIN), or something they are, which includes biometrics.

Overlooked in the past in favour of tokens, passwords, and codes sent by SMS, interest in biometrics is growing. According to the 2019 KPMG International Global Banking Fraud Survey, 67% of banks have invested in physical biometrics such as fingerprint, voice pattern and face recognition.

This year, NatWest began trialling debit cards with a fingerprint scanner built directly into the card itself.

Biometrics offer a more frictionless consumer experience, but has been held back by the need for specialised equipment. With the latest smartphones, many of us now carry the necessary hardware in our pockets. Research by Deloitte has found that a fifth of UK residents own a smartphone capable of scanning fingerprints, and that number is rising fast.

Yet just as our personal data is vulnerable to thieves, biometric information can also be stolen. In September, Chinese researchers at a cybersecurity conference in Shanghai showed it was possible to capture someone's fingerprints from a photo taken from several metres away.

If you think resetting your password is difficult, try changing your fingerprints.

To boost security, companies are increasingly relying on multiple factor authentication (MFA) which seeks to identify people using as many different ways as possible.

This can include not just explicit measures such as PINs and fingerprint scans, but background familiarity checks such as your location, purchase history, keystrokes, swiping patterns, phone identity, even the way in which you hold your phone.

"Is biometrics going to replace passwords? No, a combination of factors is going to replace passwords, we are and we should be moving toward this," says Ali Niknam, chief executive of Bunq, a mobile banking service.

Yet there is a risk of that this sort of multi-factor authentication, while secure, will make the authentication process even more opaque. If you don't know what is being used to identify you online, how can you protect that information?

"I'm careful about internet security - my date of birth isn't anywhere, my address isn't anywhere," says Sarah.

"I'm 33, relatively young and tech-savvy, but I'm not sure I'd know how to be more careful."

She does remember, however, that one bank initially refused to cancel the account the thief had opened in her name, because she didn't know the password.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
×