Proposing a single authentication scheme for the
Internet has been attempted, but it has failed. As the next lines
will hopefully clarify, such an effort is doomed from the very
start.
We have seen how the features of different systems are the result
of the diverse requirements imposed by the contexts in which
they are meant to operate. We should not expect those differences
to go away, in much the same way as we should not expect
that hammers and screwdrivers will eventually converge
into one single tool. Furthermore, we have seen how today??™s
scenarios and associated requirements greatly differ from yesterday??™s.
By induction, we can safely assume that the future will
pose challenges that we are unable to predict, and hence the
solutions will also take forms we cannot foresee today.
People and businesses will have their own preferences and inclinations,
and those will be re?¬‚ected in their technology
choices. As the value of the transaction rises, the level of security
required will follow suit; different businesses will deal with
risk in different ways, formulating their policies accordingly.
Different users will have different degrees of tolerance for information
disclosure; the concept of what is or is not acceptable in
Diversity and variety
are inherent in
the problem of
Internet authentication
The Seven Laws of Identity 105
terms of safeguarding one??™s own privacy will vary widely by
communities, cultures, or who knows what other factors.
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