International. There is a lot of talk about the possibility of getting rid of passwords and issuing high-security identity credentials to access information.
However, a fundamental obstacle in this equation is putting those credentials in the hands of consumers. Asking consumers to head to a physical location to request credentials is something that, for a practical problem, is not an option. And if they did, it would be incredibly costly in time and money.
Instead, many sites are starting to introduce step-up authentication (auth). This allows the consumer to use an identity they already have – Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – to answer some questions and get an increased level of security associated with the credential before several trusting parties who decide to accept it.
The basic idea is to allow customers to do simple things without much complication, but when the level of risk goes up, identity protection still has to be increased. "Step-up offers higher levels of security and low levels of hassle for users," said Mary Ruddy, research director at Gartner. "Instead of having the person do a lot of work in advance, you let the person in and do simple things, and if they want to do something more sensitive, they're asked for more information."
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