Next Revolution In Passwords | Karthik M'lore

Worldwide Projects which aim at eliminating use of Passwords

Passwords are nothing but a string of various characters namely alphanumeric & special characters which a person has to remember in order to access something that only he is authorized to access. Back in ancient times, passwords were used by people to enter into territory to which only they were allowed to enter. They had to tell a specific 'word' to be let into that territory. If they failed, they would be phished for trying to trespass.

Well, things are different today. Passwords are mostly used in digital media and this unauthorized trespassing is called Hacking! The disadvantages of passwords are peaking over their advantages day by day. In the present Gen-Y, we have so many online accounts for which we need to set various passwords and if we like to be hack-proof (to a certain extent), these passwords should have uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters and on top of that, they have to be minimum of 6-8 characters long.

Now keeping so many complex strings in mind becomes a daunting task and hence come, what are so called, Password Managers. These are like safes. Open it and you get all the passwords you need. If a wrong guy opens this safe of yours (by some cool tricks) he'll have all the passwords he needs and you are virtually doomed.

To eliminate this need of using so many passwords for various purposes, world class industries like Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Paypal, Lenovo, world's leading Universities etc are evolving various methodologies that will make use of a single password for everything and these passwords are all about hardwares, bar codes  Pills, Tattoos and Brain Waves too! So lets just take a little sneak peak into their R&D.

Google :

Google is working on a ring and USB key combination called the yubikey which is like a small USB device that authenticates users to log in in to Google Services without the use of passwords. As per the white paper data, the USB key receives encrypted credential data from a ring (jewelry) which helps it in authenticating the user to log in  It is supposed to work even on mobile devices which have this key already built-in.

For me, it doesn't make any sense to use a ring here but this is just a prototype development.

UC Berkeley School of Information :

This is something that goes way beyond and looks like bring a sci-fi straight to reality.

Researchers at UC Berkeley School of Information have come up with a technology that uses EEG sensors to sense brain waves to authenticate users to their accounts. You connect this device to your head, pass some pre-set thought or make your finger tip move in a certain pattern or just control your breathing or focus on anything for a particular set time and you will be logged in! This is something that looks more sensible, at least for now.

Motorola :

Well, this is the latest development. Motorola, at the All Things D conference, talked about its R&D into password elimination 

They are working on two separate methods :

1. Get a Tattoo

They have developed a tattoo with all those electronics, antennas, sensors and what not, integrated into it and you just scan these tattoos  like you scan bar codes at the supermarkets, to get yourself authorized into using your accounts. Tattoo will be on our body so you don't have to worry about accessing anything anywhere unless the device which you will be using has that special scanner.

2. A Pill?

Sounds a dangerous one but yea, this is one of the methods too. In this, you are required to swallow a pill that has a chip and a switch inside it. And this piece of electronic has to go into your stomach! It will be powered by the electrolytes present in the body and will send out a 18-bit authentication signal which will help you to log in.

Uh, all these are prototypes and are still infants. It'll take a while before any of it will be publicized or they may even kill these projects without success or due to its expense, perils etc.

Do read about Microsoft's version here in which Bill Gates predicts the Death of Passwords. Http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-5164733.html

Check out the FIDO Alliance founded by Paypal, Lenovo and many other organizations to inspire the elimination of passwords. Http://fidoalliance.org/

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About the Author:

Karthik M'lore

He is one among the Pioneere Bloggers in Karnataka!
Now a part-time blogger, affiliate marketer, hard technologist and a Formula-1 Fan..!
He now stays at Mysore.


Follow him on Twitter: @Karthik_Mlore
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