Gates predicts death of the password
Posted by malebolgia on 25 February 2004 - 20:27 · 36 comments & 1242 views
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#1 Posted by chorpeac on 25 Feb 2004 - 20:41
- Yeah bring on the biometrics!!
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(5 replies)
#2 Posted by LordHatrus on 25 Feb 2004 - 20:46
- Plus, the fact that everyone picks weak passwords anyway....
Common, when is neowin switching from taking my password to taking my biometric data?
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#2.1 Posted by longwilli on 25 Feb 2004 - 20:56
- yep well biometric data could be taken and used to steal your identity so i wouldn't just do it on any site. Passwords are good enough for me atm, unless you talk about the flash drives which do have a good use
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#2.2 Posted by markjensen on 26 Feb 2004 - 05:18
- Yeah... Now with biometrics, instead of having thugs with bats trying to rob me at the ATM, I am going to have thugs with branch pruners to cut off my fingers, and spoons to pop out my eyes. Just to get around the fingerprinter and retinal scanner.
Come on. Biometrics is the better way. You can't forget your fingers. Well, most of us can't.
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#2.3 Posted by MrTaz26 on 26 Feb 2004 - 06:04
- do like the rest of the world and use tokens... It's only the US that doesn't use tokens for almost all day to day trasactions. Biometrics is great in theory..but I could never imagine what type of hell a person would have to go through if they got that type of information stolen...how would you ever prove it wasn't actually you?
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#2.4 Posted by htmc on 26 Feb 2004 - 08:34
QUOTE how would you ever prove it wasn't actually you?
By showing how you only have one thumb, eye, or other relevant appendage. Duh.
QUOTE It's only the US that doesn't use tokens for almost all day to day trasactions.
This is factually inaccurate and is, in any case, irrelevant. Tokens represent an alternative approach to the issue of securing such transactions. As I understand it, the point is to reduce the need to accurately authenticate the user by reducing the amount of damage an imposter could do.-
#2.5 Posted by Trust on 26 Feb 2004 - 15:45
QUOTE (#2.0) when is neowin switching from taking my password to taking my biometric data?
*cough* getting your biocomposition?. What about privacy?. Ah... I forgot, u.s. ppl dont give a f*ck about privacy... then is ok?? right?
What about if someone steal your bioschematic and start to indetify somewhere else as you?.
biometric is ok in closed environments... not in public and less in a board in inet...
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#3 Posted by Trajik 2600 on 25 Feb 2004 - 20:51
- How is Terminal Services going to work? We use that to remotely support our clients a lot. I can see it working if you have a bio-input device on the client end connecting to the server expecting say, a fingerprint, but what if the server is setup for biometrics and the client machine isn't?
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(4 replies)
#4 Posted by longwilli on 25 Feb 2004 - 20:54
- did he use the same part of his brain to work this out as the '**kb of memory will be enough for anybody'?
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#4.1 Posted by lexor on 25 Feb 2004 - 21:19
- you do know that kb stuff is a myth, and he didn't actually say that?
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#4.2 Posted by Himosan on 26 Feb 2004 - 06:23
- Wikipedia says it's a myth but then attributes the following to Gates a few years earlier:
"No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer."
My personal favorite:
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
-- Bill Gates on the solid code base of Win9X
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#4.3 Posted by htmc on 26 Feb 2004 - 09:15
- Wikipedia provides incontrovertible evidence that a million eyeballs looking at something will not make it any more reliable, any less faulty, or any less craptacular. It neatly encapsulates one of the core flaws of the Open Source philosophy.
Quoting from Wikipedia is like quoting from the National Inquirer. It might make you feel smart and cultured, but you really aren't. Don't let that stop you though! -
#4.4 Posted by Himosan on 27 Feb 2004 - 08:13
- How does quoting from the Natl Enquirer make *you* feel smart and cultured? It would make me feel stupid.
Wikipedia is, by NEOWIN standards incredibly accurate and reliable :p. Anyhow I was referencing the idea that the 640kb thing in 1981 probably morphed from the 637kb thing he apparently said years earlier and hence not an myth as commonly dismissed.
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(1 reply)
#5 Posted by iguanas on 25 Feb 2004 - 21:16
- anyone read the entire article???
who talks about biometrics...
its all about keys super-infraestructure what they are talking...
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(3 replies)
#6 Posted by nw_raptor on 25 Feb 2004 - 21:51
- he also predicted that by 2005 internet connections will be many many Mbits or even Gbits... its 2004 now, and i still use ISDN
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#6.1 Posted by WindowsNT on 25 Feb 2004 - 22:23
- well here in the UK 2Mb or 3Mb cable internet would be common place!
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#6.2 Posted by Sem82 on 25 Feb 2004 - 23:00
- sweden have had 10Mbit for some time
and japan has 100mbit in homes too....
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(8 replies)
#7 Posted by dp123 on 25 Feb 2004 - 22:00
- Why didn't he have this great prediction BEFORE he predicted everyone would use Passport to store a single password in a single, central location for all things?
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#7.1 Posted by jasondefaoite on 25 Feb 2004 - 23:06
- Lol, good point!
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#7.2 Posted by JaggedFlame on 26 Feb 2004 - 01:46
- Seems more like he's talking about the business environment, not anything related to Passport. Who knows, maybe it'll change in the future.
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#7.3 Posted by tomaras on 26 Feb 2004 - 04:34
- See the difference between you whiners and Bill is that there are millions of people who actually want to hear Bill's predictions right or wrong.
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#7.4 Posted by markjensen on 26 Feb 2004 - 05:21
- And follow him, right or wrong. How many Tablet PC vendors have lost money? Maybe Tablet PCs will still catch on in the future, but for now they are a big sink-hole for the OEMs' money.
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#7.5 Posted by htmc on 26 Feb 2004 - 08:55
QUOTE And follow him, right or wrong.
Yes, because everyone knows that successful computer companies don't actually think about what they're doing, or seek to make profits. They prefer to follow blindly.
May you continue to suckle at the teat of stupidity for many years to come!-
#7.6 Posted by markjensen on 26 Feb 2004 - 10:23
- And talk about the blind supporters...
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#7.7 Posted by htmc on 26 Feb 2004 - 11:43
- And talk about the suckling at the teat of stupidity...
See? Vapid, baseless attacks work both ways.
Enjoy your meal! -
#7.8 Posted by dp123 on 26 Feb 2004 - 18:55
QUOTE See the difference between you whiners and Bill is that there are millions of people who actually want to hear Bill's predictions right or wrong
Huh? I guess I'm one of "you whiners", yeah? The difference between me and Bill is people want to hear his predictions right or wrong? Huh? I love hearing his predictions: most of them are dead wrong. But whatever... there is zero logic to your statement. Initially, I thought you were going to say the difference between "you whiners" and Bill is that he likes hearing his own predictions right or wrong. Ha, ha, ha!
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#8 Posted by PseudoRandomDragon on 25 Feb 2004 - 22:33
- He can make the prediction if he wants. If he is wrong, big deal. If he is right...big deal. Doesn't really matter.
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(1 reply)
#9 Posted by cesardrgn on 26 Feb 2004 - 03:10
- lets see where this will go...
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#10 Posted by divertom15 on 26 Feb 2004 - 04:54
- lets face it sam files suck
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(2 replies)
#11 Posted by markjensen on 26 Feb 2004 - 06:29
QUOTE Both companies agreed there is a need to remove the vulnerabilities associated with employees using weak passwords.
That is already something that can be controlled by a compentent admin. Switching to 'smart cards' isn't going to do much to increase security when a card is lost/stolen.
Plus, as long as there are 'elevation of privelege' exploits, password-restricted levels of security won't stop inside cracks.-
#11.1 Posted by Faze on 26 Feb 2004 - 09:20
- Agreed, passwords do nothing against software vulnerabilties, which are the worst problem. Just about every system I've seen for creating user accounts allows the admin to force complex passwords, including Windows. Brute force prevention methods are also standard.
If MS used a better encryption algorithm to store the passwords in the SAM (eg they don't salt the encrypted password with random data) password cracking would be less of an issue.
The worse problem for me is remembering all of the passwords I use on a regular basis. This is where biometrics and smartcards can be useful. -
#11.2 Posted by theprotege on 26 Feb 2004 - 21:56
QUOTE The worse problem for me is remembering all of the passwords I use on a regular basis.
i have over 20 logins with an average of 2-3 passwords per login for random uses...usually i get it right the first time, on occassion it will take me up to 25 minutes to get in (if there's no "whats my password" type link)
*edit spelling
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#12 Posted by aalaap on 27 Feb 2004 - 07:17
- This SecureID thing sounds a lot like the human-verification thing that most sites now use while letting people register for an account. You know? The ones that show you an image with a number or a few letters that supposedly only humans can read and OCR cant? Most of them put out such lame simple graphics that even Microsoft Narrator can read them
Just recently I went to some phpnuke type based site that had a login box in the side and they had the username password and a verficiation image with a verify textbox before the Login button. I think its too much hassle for a simple login. I can understand the need of foiling automated registrations but .. logins ??
Anyway getting back to the point. This SecurID thing probably will give the users a username and password textbox, and something like a challenge-key based on which i have to type some more characters or something to that sort. Reminds me of the way SSL is supposed to work. Nothing revolutionary to me...
- Aalaap
Gates, speaking at the RSA Security conference here on Tuesday, said: "There is no doubt that over time, people are going to rely less and less on passwords. People use the same password on different systems, they write them down and they just don't meet the challenge for anything you really want to secure." RSA is working with Microsoft to develop a SecurID technology specifically for Windows. Both companies agreed there is a need to remove the vulnerabilities associated with employees using weak passwords.
SecurID is the best-known two-factor authentication system and is used by many large enterprises. It generates a constantly changing sequence of numbers that a user has to type in alongside their normal password or PIN. Creating a specific system for Windows could mean that rolling out strong authentication across an enterprise will be far easier and cheaper. However, Gates said that Microsoft would not be using the SecurID system internally because it had opted for a smart-card system--with the help of RSA. "Microsoft recently moved to a smart card approach, and a key partner in this was RSA," he said.
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