13 technologies that are safer than passwords

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  • Fingerprint sensor

    Fingerprint sensor

    As we've learned over and over again, passwords are failing us. But maybe the fingerprint can save us.

    "Fingerprint sensors are the most widely adopted of all biometric technologies," says Jason Chaikin, president of the biometric authentication developer Vkansee.

    They're easy to use, and difficult (though not impossible) to fool. The technology, common on smartphones, reads your digit's unique pattern of ridges.

    Photo by: Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Not much room for error

    Not much room for error

    Apple says the probability of two different fingerprints registering as the same fingerprint on one of its devices with Touch ID is "1 in 50,000."

    "By comparison," the company notes, "the odds of guessing a typical 4-digit passcode are 1 in 10,000."

    Photo by: CNET

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • ​Otoacoustic authentication

    ​Otoacoustic authentication

    Now in the prototype stage, and expected on the commercial market in 2018, NEC's wearable, earbud-esque device aims to best passwords with technology that emits a signal and then identifies the user by the resulting "sounds emitted by the inner ear."

    Photo by: NEC

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Facial recognition

    Facial recognition

    A Scientific American columnist called face-reading scanners his favorite alternative to the old "123456."

    It's "secure, effortless and available now," David Progue wrote in 2016.

    Photo by: Igor Stevanovic, Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Tough to fool

    Tough to fool

    The biometric system that inspired Scientific American's praise was Windows Hello, which allows properly equipped Windows 10 users to log in with fingerprints, iris scans -- or face scans.

    "You can't fool [the face scan] with a photograph, a 3-D model of your head or even an identical twin," Progue wrote.

    Photo by: Matt Elliott/CNET

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Iris scanner

    Iris scanner

    A leading manufacturer of the technology calls the iris scan "the most accurate human identifier other than DNA." The false-accept rate, according to EyeLock, is "1-in-1.5 million for a single eye."

    Rumor has it the forthcoming iPhone 8 will feature an iris scanner. Other smartphones, including the notorious Samsung Galaxy Note 7, already have.

    Photo by: Shutterstock/Nik Bruining

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Finger-vein recognition

    Finger-vein recognition

    This infrared technology can confirm "liveness," as Vkansee's Chaikin puts it.

    "[It] allows moving blood and other things that can only happen on a living person to be recognized," he says.

    Photo by: Shutterstock / Vladimir Zhoga

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Finger-vein focused: Hitachi

    Finger-vein focused: Hitachi

    "Hitachi has most of the technology for finger-vein recognition," Chaikin says.

    The company's scanners are widely used by banks, especially in Japan.

    Photo by: Hitachi via YouTube

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Voice recognition

    Voice recognition

    Barclays is so bullish on this technology that the bank has pulled the plug on passwords and security questions in favor of voice recognition for its phone-using personal-banking customers.

    Photo by: Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • More unique than you think

    More unique than you think

    " ... [U]nlike a password," Steven Cooper, CEO of Personal Banking at Barclays, said at the system launch, "each person's voice is as unique as a fingerprint."

    Barclays said its technology would identify the customer "from the first few words that are spoken."

    Photo by: Getty Images

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • One-time passwords

    One-time passwords

    Either in physical or software form, this tech generates random passwords that, as billed, may only be used once. It's a more-secure alternative to the static password -- i.e., the one you create, perhaps scribble down and proceed to key in for months, if not years, on end.

    Photo by: Yevgen Romanenko, Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Use with passwords

    Use with passwords

    Chaikin of Vkansee warns that the one-time password is "just one layer of a larger security system."

    "When a one-time-use token, such as a one-time-use password, is added on top of a password and login, it helps with multiple-layer authentication," Chaikin says.

    Photo by: Photographer:

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • ​Windows 10 PINs

    ​Windows 10 PINs

    You can still log in to a Windows 10 device with a password, but Microsoft requires a PIN to access Windows Hello, because, as it argues at length, the PIN is flat-out "better."

    One reason: "... [T]he PIN is tied to the specific device on which it was set up," Microsoft says. "That PIN is useless to anyone without that specific hardware."

    Photo by: Microsoft

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Passphrases

    Passphrases

    Passphrases tend to be longer than passwords -- and that's why they're safer. More words, more characters and more spaces mean hackers must spend more time doing their dirty work.

    "I can't stress enough the importance of having length paired with complexity," wrote the software-test engineer behind the blog Crambler.

    Photo by: Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Multi-step authentication

    Multi-step authentication

    If a long passphrase offers more security than a short password -- and it does -- then it follows that a two- or even three-step authentication process trumps a one-step.

    In practice, this means that when you log in to an account, you are expected to provide not only a password (something you know), but also perhaps a one-time password (something you have) or a fingerprint (something you are) -- and maybe both.

    Photo by: Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Behavior recognition

    Behavior recognition

    Dubbed a password-killer, this technology IDs you by the way you use, interact with or even hold your smartphone.

    "We can even measure air pressure using the barometer on the latest smartphones, which can give us another indication of where the phone is and whether that corresponds to where the user says he is," Zia Hayat, chief executive of Callsign, told the BBC.

    Banks, including Deutsche, have given the technology trial runs.

    Photo by: Getty Images

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Palm scans

    Palm scans

    As with finger-vein recognition, palm scans analyze vein patterns via infrared technology. They've been enlisted not only by the banking industry, but also hospitals.

    "Palm scanning is 100 percent more accurate than fingerprints," Nader Mherabi, chief information officer at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, said to CBS News.

    Photo by: Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Would you use one on your laptop?

    Would you use one on your laptop?

    The Japanese tech company Fujitsu's PalmSecure has been used to safeguard ATM transactions, and even laptops, where a hovering hand over the scanner is all the system needs to authorize a log in.

    Photo by: Fujitsu via YouTube

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • ​Ear identification

    ​Ear identification

    Eyeballs and veins aren't the only unique body parts we've got. Your ears are one of a kind, too, so to speak.

    Photo by: Descartes Biometrics via Facebook

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

  • Your ears are unique

    Your ears are unique

    The dual-screen Siam 7X smartphone made a splash in part by deploying technology that "utilizes a device's camera to authenticate or identify a user from their unique ear features."

    Photo by: Siam Mobile via Facebook

    Caption by: Joal Ryan

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​Windows 10 PINs

You can still log in to a Windows 10 device with a password, but Microsoft requires a PIN to access Windows Hello, because, as it argues at length, the PIN is flat-out "better."

One reason: "... [T]he PIN is tied to the specific device on which it was set up," Microsoft says. "That PIN is useless to anyone without that specific hardware."

Caption by: Joal Ryan

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