Re: OpenID. The future of authentication on the web?

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On March 23, 2008 4:16:28 PM -0700 Steven Rakick 
<stevenrakick () yahoo com> wrote:

> Many of you have brought up that OpenID is vulnerable
> to phishing and have highlighted weaknesses specific
> traditional username/password authentication.
>
> This was the main reason I bought up Information Cards
> in my original post. I've noticed that Beemba
> (http://www.beemba.com) and MyOpenID
> (http://www.myopenid.com) have both implemented
> Information Cards as an authentication option.
>
> Good idea?
>
> It seems to me that if you were to rely on Information
> Cards as opposed to username/password the phishing
> angle is mitigated. Is this not the case?

Beemba doesn't appear to have any online FAQ or help.  MyOpenID points to 
further information which leads to this:

"With OpenID, you don’t have to sign up and create a new account for 
each site that supports OpenID – you can just use the identity you 
already have. Hundreds of millions of OpenIDs already exist, and it is 
likely that you already have one from a service you use."

Nice to know that someone is creating identities for me without my 
knowledge.  With an ethical stance like that, why should I trust them to 
make my ID secure as well?

I don't see any information at all about Information Cards.  Perhaps you 
could provide a link?

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Senior Information Security Analyst
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/

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