One of the ways of accessing someone??™s credit report is via his SSN. This mechanism
partly mitigates the need for background checks that in other countries
are instead the only tool available for assessing the risk of lending money to
someone. As a result, many high-value transactions can be completed in a very
Passwords: Ascent and Decline 29
Passwords: Ascent and Decline
Passwords, passwords, passwords. How many times do you
have to use a password in one hour of Web sur?¬?ng? They are a
big pain, and an even bigger liability. However, their usage is so
deeply rooted in information technology that they may seem
inevitable. And to think that at the beginning it seemed like such
a great idea!
In this short section, we show how passwords make sense at a
certain scale but fail spectacularly once certain thresholds are
reached. By looking at the very basis of password adoption, we
realize that they are not thesolution to access control but rather
a solution whose shortcomings are seriously affecting our way
of approaching identity online.
Ascent
There is a resource that looks available to a vast audience, but
only a precise subset of that audience has the right to actually
access it.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74