Given the the "market" has chosen to use public "secret" information like SSN's, birthdates, "mother's maiden name", etc, I'm fearful of what kind of hare brain

Given the the "market" has chosen to use public "secret" information like SSN's, birthdates, "mother's maiden name", etc, I'm fearful of what kind of hare brained solutions industry would come up with on their own if left to design an authentication system. That having been said, something needs to change. Culturally, I think we need to move away from the idea of "identity theft", which places most of the burden of "restoring their good name" on the individual whose "identity" was "stolen". We need to treat it like what it is-- fraud. We should hold the parties who are negligent in their duty to authenticate liable for the fraud committed. Insurance companies and banks would act quickly if the liability were theirs. We'd have "chip and PIN" in the United States if fraud liability rested with banks, instead of mainly with merchants, for example. I'd like to see the US Postal Service get into the identity/authentication "game", personally, but efforts at a state level would be better than nothing.