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great-two-factor-authentication-article-at-cso

Posted by: admin 15 years, 8 months ago
There is a great article on two-factor authentication at CSO Online. The title is misleading, IMO. Here are some of the parts I found interesting:
Fear that security worries were causing people to abandon Internet banking (or the Internet altogether) did not weigh all that heavily in Jackson's work. Nor did a prevailing belief that banks had failed to secure their customers. In fact, Jackson believes, banks have done reasonably well securing online transactions, given the available technology—though that is hardly a consensus opinion. But for Jackson, it's the key. "Mostly this was about changes in technology solutions," he says. "The industry has matured enough where options are available." In other words, the FFIEC decided that authentication technology was finally good enough to justify a more forceful approach.

So the Feds just realized that the economics of the situation changed.

And here's another one I liked:
One way to look at the FFIEC guidance is as something that simply pushes down the definition of what's risky so that it applies to many more transactions. Or, put more optimistically, it helps a market grow by creating consumer confidence where too little existed before.

For example, allowing customers to change their own addresses online is ill-advised under single-factor authentication. With stronger authentication, UWCU's Bangerter says he can offer real-time change-of-address types of services online. "There have been some things we've wanted to do online but weren't comfortable with. Now we can start doing some damage"—meaning marketing damage, by attracting new customers—"with new applications online because we feel it's safer."

Now, you can argue that one shouldn't use the phrase "doing some damage" for a security magazine, but it's true. As we have discussed before banks will be able to do new things and deliver new services because of better authentication.
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