TECH – Password Protection: Too Old School?

Written by: R Bryant FranciscloseAuthor: R Bryant Francis Name: Bryant Francis
Email: bryant.francis@outlook.com
Site: http://writingronin.tumblr.com/
About: R. Bryant Francis is a former contributing writer to the Jace Hall Show who specializes in gaming, pop culture, and all-around geekiness. Outside of the show, Bryant pursues a career in Hollywood as a producer and filmmaker.See Authors Posts (272)

So in this last month, it’s kind of sucked if you have an e-mail and password combination at just about any site. Sony got hacked. Lulzsec distributed 62,000 random e-mail/password combinations that it won’t reveal the origins of. And even Citigroup had to admit the security of 320,000 accounts had been compromised.

So what’s the solution? Gizmodo has a great article arguing that the age of e-mail and password combinations needs to finish quickly. Soon, it could be all too easy for someone to jack into—say, your Bethesda softworks account, and get information to breach your Facebook account, Amazon account, or even your corporate or government e-mail.

But what kind of solutions can we think of? It’s not like we can do DNA testing on the web. (Don’t believe CSI, it actually takes like 5 weeks to get DNA testing done, not a few minutes.) Your social security number—which only you are supposed to know—would be a terrible replacement.

Terrible, terrible idea

And the answer can’t really be making better locks—Apple’s a sterling gold example that no matter how many times you update the security on iOS, people can still hack their iPhones and iPads like nobody’s business. The lock doesn’t just need to be changed, it needs to be made out of an entirely new metal.

Any ideas?