Here at Magnitude we always looking for better ways to do things. In the development office we are inherent problem solvers. We are faced daily with new problems to solve and we have a huge arsenal of tools available to us. Its often the case that in the quest for bigger and better the simple problems are often overlooked as they have already been solved. But have they ?

Every computer user will be familiar with the idea of identity and logging on. You often need a username as password to get your operating system to start. On the web we have many accounts for many websites and its often difficult to remember what you’ve used where. Many peoples solution to this is to use the same credentials for all of them, filling out the same data on all the registration forms put in front of them. Often this works fine in practice but what if your data falls into the wrong hands? Someone can quite easily find out all sorts of things and will more than likely be able to get into your email too (this is where the not-very-security-minded-person person might keep their bank login details for example).

Although there are many - I’d like to mention two alternate systems or ideas for authenticating users which could possibly become more popular in the future.

OpenID
OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience. The basic idea behind openID is that you can use your exisiting login details for one website to log into another. Here is an example. if you are a Yahoo user you already have an openID. Say you’ve just found a cool new website with openID support that you’d like to register for and you get to the register page and think ‘not this again!’ but notice the openID login option. You can simply tell this website that you are a Yahoo user and you will be taken to Yahoo to login to your new website.

This is only going to work on a big scale if it is supported by some heavyweights and as of today the list includes AOL, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Orange, VeriSign, Yandex and Yahoo - all acting as providers. visit the open id directory for more

Graphical Passwords
Because human beings live and interact in an environment where the sense of sight is predominant for most activities, our brains are capable of processing and storing large amounts of graphical information with ease. While we may find it very hard to remember a string of fifty characters, we are able easily to remember faces of people, places we visited, and things we have seen. These graphical data represent millions of bytes of information and thus provides large password spaces.



Instead of choosing a text string of say 10 characters, you are presented with an image like the one above. You are then asked to choose say four points which form your password. Mine for example are highlighted by the red blocks. You may be asked click these in order or in an order specified by the website your on to gain access.

As I’ve mentioned there are many alternate methods for logging in but those are two I really like.

Neil