DISQUS

lalunablanca · 8 months ago

Great post. Thanks for sharing.. A fantastic breach of more popular social networking sites is eminent. Whether or not that occurs after we begin to place more sensitive information within them (such as financial, medical, legal etc...) is yet to be seen. Others might argue that the trojan is already in-place awaiting a more profitable loot.

I have more faith in the two-factor authentication challenge methods than the biometrics. Something about "scanning' a fingerprint or retina doesn't give me much confidence (as an obvious layman).

I see longer term success in the dynamic dongle-type phone apps than biometrics, and unfortunately we won't be motivated to adopt these until some major breach occurs (like traffic lights not being used until fatalities occur at specific intersections).

Daniel J. Pritchett · 8 months ago

Thanks for your feedback, Dave!

Most of the biometric systems I've seen are single-factor auth setups but I guess there's no reason you couldn't keep a password alongside your fingerprint scan. The way I always heard two-factor explained was "something you know and something you have". Type in your password, enter in your keycode/fingerprint/eyeprint, and you're good.

The place where I'm most concerned about the iPhone as an authenticator is the fact that it has to dock with a computer on a regular basis. It wouldn't be impossible to write a virus/trojan that compromises an iPhone while it's docked.

Either way, this type of enhanced security is a major step up from the single password systems we see all over the place now. You are right about people accepting improper security until it hurts them personally. It's a shame.

Louis Gray · 8 months ago

Post by Daniel Pritchett: http://friendfeed.com/dpritchett

Alp B. · 8 months ago

Fingerprint and retina... umm sounds interesting.

Daniel J. Pritchett · 8 months ago

One thing I forgot to mention is that the $7 keyfob Is constantly sold out. This digital replacement should go a long way toward protecting more users.

Daniel J. Pritchett · 8 months ago

Here's a negative update on the authenticator rollout: WoW accounts that have been converted to Battle.net accounts are having occasional issues logging in to the system. Anyone who wants the security of the authenticator is forced to convert their account, but then you're subject to the kinks of a new addon to the system: http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/29/battle-net...

Green Earth · 5 months ago

As the most commercially successful online role playing game in history, World of Warcraft (WoW) has a player base larger than many small countries. Recent announcements put the number of active users at greater than ten million. With that level of player support, it's not surprising that "community" and "socialization" are key aspects of the game. Not surprising either, just like one finds pick pockets and other rogues wherever large numbers of people congregate, the WoW community has seen a number of fraudulent activities and scams emerge. Here is a quick checklist of things which you can do to keep your game account and virtual assets safe.

http://www.articlesbase.com/video-games-article...