PhoneFactor 1.0.6 available
There’s a new PhoneFactor in town! PhoneFactor 1.0.6 is now available. You can get it from www.phonefactor.net or by logging into the Web administration portal if you’re already a PhoneFactor user.
This release includes mostly minor changes, but is required if you want to use PhoneFactor with Canadian numbers.
Let me know if there are any questions. [...]
PhoneFactor in Canada
I have another exciting announcement for another addition to the free PhoneFactor service:
As of a few days ago, we’ve opened up the free PhoneFactor service area to include Canada. So, if you’re in Canada and would like to register for PhoneFactor, download it from phonefactor.net and enjoy!
We’re nearing our release of full global authentication as [...]
PhoneFactor Web SDK available
Busy doesn’t begin to describe the environment around here right now! The software development team continues to crank out new features and improvements to PhoneFactor, and I’m thrilled to see how many people have downloaded and implemented PhoneFactor in their networks. In fact, we’ve been so busy around here that I have a couple of [...]
PhoneFactor and accessibility
I just read a post at the Blind Access Journal about PayPal’s security tokens (which are basically RSA SecurID tokens). They point out that reading six digits off of a small token display is difficult or impossible for a visually impaired or blind person.
This is another one of those cases where leveraging a long-available technology [...]
Public hotspots and PhoneFactor
As I’ve been traveling, I’ve been looking around for public hotspots to use for Internet access. There are a few very important security considerations to keep in mind when using public hotspots, though.
First, by their nature, they’re not encrypted. That means that anyone else on the hotspot (not just the operator) can see everything [...]
A couple of quickies
I’m on vacation (which mostly means working at 1AM instead of 1PM), so instead of writing much here, I’m just going to leave you with a couple of interesting authentication-related articles:
Password stealing for dummies
First Response issues ID theft alert after burglary
Enjoy!
-Steve
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Assume your laptop will be stolen
Dark Reading has an article up called Assume your laptop will be stolen. There are some interesting stats and anecdotes, but the bottom line is this:
As Latalladi observes, if you’ve got dozens of laptop users, eventually someone’s going to lose one. There are plenty of technical options to calm IT staff, senior executives, and shareholders [...]
New York Times on banking and two-factor
Our friends at the New York Times point out that the common "two-factor" system in use by online banking websites doesn’t really work that well.
Banks recognized that adding a lot of inconvenience to the online banking process would clearly decrease user satisfaction and, ultimately, system use overall. They particularly single out token-based solutions as [...]
PhoneFactor and public wi-fi
Most public wi-fi hotspots are of the "open" variety. That means that, in general, everything you send back and forth over the air can easily be seen by anyone else on the same hotspot. Worse yet, lots of computers have software that attempts auto-login to sensitive things, like mail servers, as soon as a new [...]
