THE US Commerce Department has unveiled a plan for a national cyber-identity system that gives consumers a single secure password and identity for all their digital transactions. FOX News reports the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) will be a voluntary system designed to protect consumers from online fraud and identity theft - which hit 8.1 million people in the US last year, at a total cost of $27 billion.
The problem? The current system of half-remembered passwords jotted down on Post-it notes and based on pets and maiden names simply isn't good enough.
"Passwords just won't cut it here," said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who announced the initiative at the US Chamber of Commerce.
"We must do more to help consumers protect themselves, and we must make it more convenient than remembering dozens of passwords," he said.
The "identity ecosystem" will create secure online IDs for Americans who elect to join the program.
Instead of having to remember all those disparate passwords, a consumer would use a "single credential" to log in, with far more security than a password alone would provide, the agency said.
That log in could be anything: a smart card, a cell phone, a keychain fob, or some other type of gizmo.
And if a user so chooses, they can elect to have several log-ins from different credential providers.
Want a key fob from Google and cell phone software from Verisign? Go for it, both will work - though having two would reduce the simplicity factor, of course.
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