Are Passwords Dead?

The way we protect the information on our portable devices – whether it be a smartphone, tablet or laptop – is something that we currently take for granted. It’s a case of thinking up a series of letters and/or numbers, setting the password, and feeling secure in the knowledge that the one you have set is unbreakable.

 

By Mike Wheeler

 

The way we protect the information on our portable devices – whether it be a smartphone, tablet or laptop – is something that we currently take for granted. It’s a case of thinking up a series of letters and/or numbers, setting the password, and feeling secure in the knowledge that the one you have set is unbreakable.

 

However, there are inherent flaws in that theory as hackers get smarter and can capture your password via phishing scams or other malware. Because most people have so many different features to sign in – internet banking, email accounts, online shopping accounts, the list goes on – they double up on passwords so they don’t have to remember a raft of them, which most cybercrims rely on when breaking into your computer.

 

Speaking at an event at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Google’s manager of information security, Heather Adkins, declared that passwords are dead. She says that “passwords are done at Google” and that they are looking at non-traditional ways of securing information on electronic devices. Even the way some companies tell users how strong or weak a password is – even to the point of warning users that they can’t use the one they have chosen – are coming to a close.

 

Google is said to be working on several new ways of protecting your files including a non-traditional method that Motorola is said to be working on whereby you have a touch-enabled device imbedded in your clothing or wallet or something similar, which is almost impossible for a cybercrim to steal.

 

How long it will take for these ideas to come to market Adkins didn’t say, but with Google leading the way in changing the game in computer and internet security, it will only be a matter of time before Adkins’ prediction becomes a reality.