Back in September, Gartner detailed its top eight security projects for the coming year. Among those was the concept of ‘passwordless’ authentication, where a second factor such as a known asset like a phone, tablet, keyfob or smart watch can be used instead of a password.
Excerpt from: Interview: J Wolfgang Goerlich, Advisory CISO, Duo Security (Cisco)
Speaking to Infosecurity, Goerlich cited a talk at the 2004 RSA Conference, where Bill Gates said that the password is dead, and Goerlich commented that “16 years later we’re still trying to kill it.” He said that to enable a passwordless strategy, you need both the equipment and technology to enable it, but mostly you need “to have momentum in the organization and a reason to do it.”
However, now that everyone carries a biometric authenticator in their pocket, has hardware in place and given the fact that security wants to enable users, why do passwords still exist?
Read the full article: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/interviews/interview-wolfgang-cisco-duo/
Wolf’s Additional Thoughts
What leads one innovation to succeed? What leads another innovation to stall? We need standards, infrastructure, and critical mass. But these come often out of order and require a spark to bring it all together. Sixteen years after Bill Gates declared the password dead, we’ve reached the inflection point. It’s about to get exciting.
The final thought in the article is “He concluded by saying that increasing trust in authentication is vital for passwordless to succeed, as today’s good factor is bypassed tomorrow. “
My strong recommendation is pairing passwordless with additional anti-fraud measures. Include the device identification in the authentication. Include behavior analytics (where, when, how) to further bolster trust in the authentication. We can predict criminals will work around these authentication methods, so let’s move now to put in place compensating controls to detect and prevent their next move.
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