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Thanks for the great content and information. Just a minor nitpick: your identity can't be authenticated. You, as an individual, can be identified, but the onl

by slau 9y ago

Thanks for the great content and information. Just a minor nitpick: your identity can't be authenticated. You, as an individual, can be identified, but the only thing that can be authenticated is the piece of plastic (ensuring it is not counterfeit). I wrote down an analogy for the different lingo some months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13635820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13635820

jaclaz 9y ago
Yep, sure, you are correct, that's why I put it in double quotes, more accurately the identity can be "verified" or "vaidated" by the ID card (of course authentic) or even more strictly by comparing the photo (and other description data) on the ID card to the looks of the bearer. I just checked and also en.wikipedia has a good description of the algorithm used, JFYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code_card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code_card
bonzini 9y ago
That's why the piece of plastic is only used together with an ID card, driver's license or passport---the plastic has a smartcard but no photo, so the two complement each other. Alternatively the smartcard can be used as a second factor together with a password but, as you correctly pointed out, it is not enough alone.