31/10/2013
Passwords Provide Weak Security
Passwords have a special place in today’s security scenario. They guard your private information, personal identity and your finances. But are they really working? A recent study which surveyed people in the US, UK and Germany sheds light on the current situation in the use, or misuse, of passwords. Almost half of the people surveyed were not able to carry out online transactions because of failure of password authentication of some sort. Users forgot their passwords, and most of the failures were because of this. In general, it seems that consumers repose little trust in passwords. According to Larry Ponemon, the author of the study, 46% of the respondents stated that they have no faith in websites that rely only on passwords. Ponemon thinks that consumers are using the websites but not necessarily trusting them.
Many websites have tried to introduce password complexity as best practice. But this best practice doesn’t seem to be working for users either. According to Ponemon, 69% of the consumers said that they couldn’t remember a password as it was too complex or too long. Of course, a lot of websites offer a password reset feature, but those don’t seem to be so popular either, because it was felt that it took too long to reset a password.
A senior official of the organization that sponsored the study concluded that consumers are eager for other forms of authentication. This organization is connected to the FIDO Alliance which formulates strong authentication tools like biometric readers to access online services. This study concluded that consumers are interested in powerful authentication mechanisms and 69% stated that they are very much interested in the biometric eye scan system as an authentication device. So what is required here is to formulate easy-to-use, powerful authentication devices which would also be commercially viable. So the challenge is to the businesses to provide it.
