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As technologists, and as an industry, we are failing our customers by not having developed a credible alternative to SSNs. They're only used because literally e
by rdancer 11y ago
As technologists, and as an industry, we are failing our customers by not having developed a credible alternative to SSNs. They're only used because literally everything else is an even worse fit for access control.
Let's not also forget that in year 2015, we still use passwords as primary access control guards. That's technology that was invented shortly after the development of speech in humans, circa 100,000 BC.
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoPasswords, as we know them in the form of computer passwords, are of course much more recent, usually credited to Fernando J. Corbató for use in the Compatible Time-Sharing System in the early 60s. Their semantics are quite different from having to say "swordfish" to a guard behind a door. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with them. There are people who propose we generate key pairs for every newborn. It is, however, delusional to believe that the same governments which struggle with flat documentation will then turn around to properly do PKI.