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AOL Moves Beyond Single Passwords for Log-Ons
ars writes "Yahoo is reporting that AOL is adding a new feature alowing customers to use two passwords to log on. The second password comes from a small small device from RSA Securitywhich displays a new password each minute.
The scheme is called two-factor authentication and will cost $1.95 a month plus a one-time $9.95 fee. It's aimed at small business and people who conduct large transactions online."
Something I've waited for years and it never come--maybe someone can explain why: client-side SSL.
To my understanding, you would place a client-authenticating certificate in you web browser program, and during the SSL negotiation that certificate would be used for authentication.
The only two problems were (again, to my limited understanding) first that you had to go through the effort of installing the certificate on every browser you used, and second, the security could be broken if someone had access to your account. (Of course, account login security and browser "first-time-on-launch" passwords helped protect against that.)
Why the bloody SecureID system that's so klunky?
Murray Todd Williams
My bank uses one of these for online banking, as a protection against keystroke recorders. I suppose I'm just too lazy to actually get hold of one and try it. I figure they're not a bad idea, given that the majority of people trying to hack your accounts are amateurs who would be put off by it.
Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
These people aren't techheads, and most of them write their passwords down on pieces of paper, conveniently attached to their laptops, which is then conveniently placed in their work briefcase, along with the password updater.
Sufficed to say, dozens of these briefcases get stolen, in the same bar frequented by employees of this company every six months (One might ask why they still take their gear there). The thief gets an expensive company fleet laptop, a company password list, and a company satellite password updater, all packed in the same convenient suitcase with a carryhandle ready to go missing.
Ultimately, no matter how many security measures you put in place for a company or organisation, you're going to encounter people who write down their passwords, people who fall for emails from tech support who need to 'verify' their accounts and ultimately people who will have their information stolen and not report it for days, which is plenty of time for the thief, and a less-than-ideal amount of time for people like you and me to have enabled compromised accounts running on the system.
As for using it for other systems (VPN, etc.) I would be really surprised if they would let you do that, even for an extra fee. Tinfoil helmets and extreme security paranoia are rampant in our IT people, mostly AOL guys. Our network is built on the 'Security Through Confusion' model. Their answer to getting me intranet access from my video production machine was to ship me a low end Dell that they would allow on the network. It still doesn't address the issue of my need to take :30 TV ads from the production machine, and send them to people on the network.
So, no, I wouldn't expect that they would help you use the RSA fob for anything other than getting your spam, er.... email.
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
Depends. I worked as a call center tech from 1997-1999. I'll outline the problems that I had. First, you are nothing more than a number (or numbers). You are employee 28645. You must maintain an average call time of no more than 7 min 30 sec, an idle time of 3% or less, and lose no more than 15 minutes off of the phones in an 8 hour shift. That is all they care about. Oh, and maintain good customer service stats at the same time. It's like the real-life interpretation of a Dilbert comic. You have to fix the customers problems and make them happy. But don't take more than a daily average of X number of minutes. This sucks when someone who has had AOL for years calls with a problem that takes hours to fix. You can A. Spend time fixing it and screw yourself on call time or B. Dump the call to save your call time and hope that they aren't one of the few callers who get a "how did we do?" e-mail that will lower your customer service scores. I quit because I got sick of conflicting signals I kept getting from management. "We're all about servicing the customers". But that was only if you could do it in the correct amount of time. They wanted satisfied customers, but didn't want to spend any time with them. Oh, and they put the responsibility for resolvong that paradox on your shoulders. If you fail, you're fired. I had one of the highest customer satisfaction scores in my call center. Because I fixed peoples' problems on the first call, rather than giving BS and dumping calls and forcing them to wait on hold 3 times to get a solution (something like 90% and 95% when the call center averages were around 60% and 65%). But that killed me on call times. If a customer called in with problem A and I knew that down the road they were also going to run into problem B, I would fix both problems, while most people who valued their jobs would fix problem A and let them call in again in a week when they ran into problem B. This could all be solved if management could pull their heads out of their butts and realize that one 10 minute call that fixes a problem costs less than three 5 minute calls. And the customer leaves happier. Save your sanity. Tear up the application.
If you mod me down, I shall become less powerful than you could possibly imagine.