The Death of Passwords

Once upon a time, passwords were four-numeral codes that gained us entry into our old Nokias. They were called PIN codes. We’d hate it when a “friend” would intentionally exceed the alloted PIN attempts, just so we’d get “PUK’d.” Sometimes, we’d wonder what the heck PIN2 and PUK2 codes were. We’d think about how effed we were if we crossed that line and our phones asked those obscure codes from us. But tales like that are long gone. In fact, if you do the math, they’ve been gone for more than a decade. Now, we’ve got passwords, pass codes, alphanumerics, gestures, face recognition, voice recognition, fingerprint scanning, retina scanning, and heartbeat scanning. Anything can be made into a password now. In fact, the term “password” sounds ridiculous. We may have killed the password. And it deserved to die.

Advertisement

Why? Because anything with a password can be hacked. Email accounts, social network accounts, bank accounts, cloud accounts, anything with the word “account” and “protected” by a password. This past year or two, we’ve witnessed big companies that we trust get hacked out of nowhere. Sony, Adobe, Google, Apple. These are guys we trusted with our passwords. Our precious passwords are not safe. Hackers might not even need our passwords to gain access to our accounts. Everywhere, we are told never to type out passwords, store them in a text file, send them out to another person, or use the same one for multiple accounts. Isn’t it funny that the only way we can protect our passwords in this day and age might be to actually write it down on a piece of paper? Everyone’s online anyway. Thieves might steal your TV, but they’re not going to be interested in a scrap of paper with gibberish written on it.

There’s a movement now that’s taking the hint and changing the way we gain access to things. Words, phrases, and gobbledygook are not our only ways for authentication. Even before this whole fiasco with passwords, the concept of fingerprint scanning already existed in sci-fi films. Now, it’s more commercial, as seen in the recent iPhone releases. Besides that, gestures made on the screen can be made into passwords. Point your mic or your camera at your face and you can unlock your phone with voice or face recognition. Granted, these methods are not the safest either. Recognition software only notes certain features of your face or voice. Unlike your actual face and voice, these features are non-specific. Another person with relatively the same features can get into your phone. And another thing, these methods are used only on devices. They haven’t made it into online accounts yet. Which is a good thing because we don’t need big businesses storing more traces of our identities than what we already trust them with.

A while ago, I mentioned heartbeat scanning. It’s relatively unheard of, but it’s starting to make the waves on the online grapevine. A start-up called Bionym is going one more step further down the biological spectrum to provide better security for everything with a heartbeat.

The Ontario-based start-up, started in 2011, specializes in biometrics and authentication technology. They’re introducing a wearable band that uses only your heartbeat for authentication – the Nymi. The Nymi uses your electrocardiogram to authenticate your identity through an embedded sensor. Once authenticated, it sends this information through Bluetooth Low Energy to bypass any verification obstacles in the devices you send this information to. A heartbeat is as authentic as it gets. It works on a motion sensing and proximity detecting basis. More than just detection, gesture-specific commands correspond to different actions in a device. You can unlock cars, turn on computers, and complete transactions with a flick of the wrist while wearing the Nymi.

Adoption rates are dependent on the development of products and applications that will be compatible with the technology. For now, the Nymi is available on a preorder basis. Its uses are currently limited to what is available, but what a revolution it promises once it takes off. This is the first step towards the impending Internet of Things. All our devices and transactions will be connected by the one unifying factor that remains uniquely ours. Convenience and ease is literally as close as a heartbeat. But with all new technology, adoption comes with questions. Will this be compatible with all our accounts in the future? What else is possible besides authentication? What happens to our bands when we die? Is this the utopian dream or the dystopian nightmare? Whatever the answers are, we live in exciting times. We are starting to make passwords obsolete. It may frighten us or leave us in awe, but passwords are NOT here to stay and the Internet of Things is starting.