Identity theft and fraud affect millions of people and cost tens of billions of dollars in the United States alone. Online, password-protected information is especially vulnerable to hackers looking to capitalize on consumers’ tendency to use the same password across multiple sites. Multi-factor identification, which requires more than one form of identification to access online information, is becoming more prevalent in an attempt to combat online identity theft. This technology is a method for increasing password security by using multi-factor authentication that requires users to log onto more than one website to access online information and also employs decoy passwords for the sites. It is more secure than traditional password authentication and less expensive than other third-party verification methods.
Online passwords are vulnerable to a wide range of different attacks, from brute force password guessing software to hardware that employs advanced password-cracking platforms to large-scale password leaks. These vulnerabilities are compounded when users have the same passwords on multiple websites. This technology requires users to be logged onto at least two different websites to access the information on either site, decreasing the likelihood that a hacker will have access to the passwords for both sites. In addition, the system generates a plurality of decoy passwords for each site, making identification of authentic passwords even more difficult for hackers. This system takes advantage of the fact that most people are already logged onto multiple platforms at once (for example, Google, Twitter and Facebook), making it cheaper and more convenient for users than other multi-factor authentication methods.
Tech Ventures Reference: IR CU14129
