TECH WEIRDOS: The evolution of PASSWORDS

This is the era of the ‘Internet of things’ the day where internet is among basic needs in your own preferential order. Then now the individual; suddenly, we have all developed a strong sense of privacy and anyone snooping on personal information is worth being banished from the society all reasons justified.

Passwords, antiviruses and other security measures come in all forms and measures individuals choose to take are just intriguing. How far would you go for a password? Well, my colleague Washington once highlighted on do’s and don’ts of passwords and all this technology protection measures. This however caught my eye;

“Do not use password applications to store your passwords… do not store your precious data to an online data backup service… you will give anyone whom is an employee of the company and has administrative rights to your stored online data ACCESS to your life.”

His solution?, “I use linux with lots of security and encryption, and I memorize all my 20 passwords consisting of 15+ : upper/lower case characters, numbers and special characters. Along with an algorithm.  by Fname Lname. Well, that is how serious the individual takes passwords and sense of privacy.

There are so many do’s than don’ts and now that important information leaked would mean the death of you, it is best you paid attention and updated your security passwords often. The fear of getting hacked is real.

All this will come to end one day and not centuries or even decades to come, the day gets closer by hour. Kachwanya.com earlier highlighted on how your body temperature could help a stranger access your password using a specialized gadget to detect. Do not expect me to sound techie on this but this is how it works; Near Field Payment systems being the most targeted, feeding your password/pin on the buttons will indicate the button first pressed and the one last pressed due to hand temperature therefore indicating the password number lineup and that is exactly how unsafe you are.

So, how are you expected to handle NFC payment gadgets? Put your fingers on the rest of the buttons as well while putting in the password and release once done. That way, the gadget cannot detect the password by the help of your finger temperature.

PASSWORD EVOLUTION;

Today, the mention of a password will get a majority of people thinking of it as the normal combo of alphabets, numbers and other characters on keyboard. Well, that is changing and so is payment mode and system.

Kenya is at the mobile rising level in terms of payment mode where customers are happy to pay through text using smartphones without having to be in contact with seller. At least that is the latest for a good number of the country’s population not to forget the wave and go for low priced goods. This is what you see in supermarkets. Also known as NFC, the mode of payment which uses contactless cards has been around for a while and has recorded fast growth in developing countries.

Now to passwords; people today feel safe using fingerprints for security access either to building entries or personal information. Well, you are behind time because fingerprints are the latest target and your unique finger pattern can easily be memed. Companies have therefore opted to make bodily features your security.

Nymi by Bionym a Toronto based biometric technology company is the latest gadget that measures heartbeats to authenticate identity. The sensor reads electrical pulses produced by your heartbeat which is unique to each of us. These must be the end days as written in the holy book.

Forget about your wallet, debit and credit cards, smartphones and all payment gadgets. All you have to do is show up at an ATM and your name pops up without even having to enter your card or even pin. Yes, your heartbeat will take care of that. The future is interesting and at the same time scary or is it just me who is fascinated by tomorrow’s technology?

A step at a time, wave and go, tap your card, wave your hand, show your wrist…all the weird things for the sake of privacy.

 

 

 

Winfred Kuria854 Posts

Winfred Kuria is a self-constituted web content writer in charge of Tech News and Events Publicity at Kachwanya.com. She will communicate in the simplest way possible with an aim of changing the world one mind at a time.

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