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."

Comments

Re:AOL Employees

[macthulhu]

I still work for The Deathstar.... oooops, I mean AOL/TW (Go easy on me, I work on the less evil side... Time Warner Cable). We use these RSA IDs. They're not so bad. The part of the login that asks for the number actually goes faster than the normal login procedure. I know you need it to access that account from any computer via AOL or their Webmail interface...

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.

Re:AOL Employees

[clickster]

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.