Let’s see if I can guess your password. 123456? qwerty? Password1? Let’s try abc123, 111111, monkey
or Trustno1 (very clever on that last one)? Did I guess correctly? If so, congratulations on having one of
the twenty five most popular (moronic) passwords of 2015.
We are all aware of the password circus. Effective passwords are near impossible to remember and easy
passwords are barely worth the effort to put in place. Even if you are able to stumble upon a complex
password you can remember, here comes the thirty day prompt to change it with a “ten character ? no
less than five symbols ? alphanumeric password” that would have Rain Man scratching his head.
We are not treading on unfamiliar territory here. The frustrations of passwords have plagued us for
decades. We have also heard the “end of passwords” chant before by industry leaders such as Bill Gates.
Yet here we are, sticky notes with Batman1 on our monitors and keyboard undersides wondering why
security is so frequently compromised.
But it would appear that we really can see the horizon line on the end of passwords. Microsoft is
unveiling several options aimed to eliminate the need for passwords. The technology behind this is
called Fast Identity Online also known as FIDO. Windows 10 will be supporting this methodology via
“Windows Hello”.
What this means is the ability to access your computer via face, iris, voice or a fingerprint. Logins via
dongle are also supported (smile).
This technology will go beyond desktops to include Apple’s Touch ID for the iPhone and iPad taking
advantage of biometric fingerprints to replace passcodes. Samsung, not to be left behind also has a
fingerprint reader for its Galaxy S5. Convenience is nice, but how do fingerprint readers stack up against
passcodes from a security standpoint. Apple has stated that one would have to attempt fifty?thousand
fingers to get a random match versus the one in ten?thousand chance of guessing a passcode with four
digits. It is promising that some banks have already announced they will transition to touch
identification for customer bank account access.
Will the shift to biometric security via Apple and Microsoft’s new technology help to reduce the billions
of passwords leaked yearly? Almost certainly. One cannot easily forget their fingers or eyes and it is
quite difficult to write either of them down on a piece of paper. In addition, the systems used by
Microsoft and Apple have evolved to not store all passwords or biometric information in one central
storage area but rather store them locally. This method makes if far more difficult for a hacker to gain
access to a large pool of identification as is commonly done today.