[HN Gopher] Beyond Identity Offers Free Version of Its Passwordl...
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       Beyond Identity Offers Free Version of Its Passwordless Technology
        
       Author : dpelevator
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2021-01-26 14:55 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.darkreading.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.darkreading.com)
        
       | intotheabyss wrote:
       | There's already a passwordless technology; it's called Ethereum
       | and Metamask. Store your private key on a hardware wallet, and
       | boom, you have a very secure account controlled by the user where
       | no password or login required to interact with applications. It's
       | also free
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | Point us to anything showing that Metamask supports WebAuthn
         | for this passwordless login use case.
        
         | jtbayly wrote:
         | Who is giving out free hardware wallets? I'd like one.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | zackify wrote:
       | Uhhh the free version of passwordless technology is called
       | "webauthn"
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | WebAuthn is a framework. A quick search shows that Beyond
         | Identity uses WebAuthn, FIDO, and other identity management
         | flows and standards.
        
       | holtalanm wrote:
       | I'm tempted to suggest the linked article be changed to:
       | https://www.beyondidentity.com/blog/why-we-made-passwordless...
       | 
       | the actual blog post from Beyond Identity.
       | 
       | was really frustrated when the first link in the darkreading
       | article just linked out to _another_ darkreading article.
       | Like....wtf?
        
         | joncp wrote:
         | And the original doesn't render unless you let it use js.
        
       | decentralbanker wrote:
       | interesting. i wonder if it supports linux? How is this different
       | from Yubikey? We use FIDO keys and HYPR at my office -
       | https://www.hypr.com/
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | ancharm wrote:
       | I want my private keys stored on my iPhone / Apple Watch, in
       | Secure Enclave memory, with two-factor biometric authentication
       | (FaceID and Fingerprint). No more passwords.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | I thought this was supported as of Safari 14, but I haven't
         | heard if Google and Firefox intend to support this as well.
         | 
         | https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10670/
        
         | dheera wrote:
         | I don't. I don't want to have to carry a stupid phone around
         | everywhere to get things done. I should only have to move my
         | body between the places I go, and the various 24"+ screens I
         | encounter, mostly at home and the office, should become my UI,
         | and none of that should depend on carrying a stupid 6 inch
         | device.
         | 
         | I like passwords + a YubiKey left permanently plugged into
         | every device.
        
           | Shebanator wrote:
           | That's fine for many applications, but for someone like me
           | who has a Continuous Glucose Monitor having my phone/watch be
           | with me at all times is a fact of life. I look forward to the
           | day when my CGM interfaces directly with my watch so I don't
           | have to carry the phone all the time.
        
             | RHSeeger wrote:
             | I'd settle for it just displaying on the lock screen, so I
             | don't need to unlock my phone and check the statuses to see
             | what my blood sugar is at. That being said, just being able
             | to look to see what my blood sugar is at without having to
             | poke a hole in my finger was a massive change in how I
             | managed my blood sugar. Having alerts for low (or dropping)
             | blood sugar is a great thing, too. Man, I love my CGM
             | (Dexcom G6)... can't say enough good things about it
             | compared to manual blood testing.
        
             | dheera wrote:
             | > but for someone like me
             | 
             | Of course that's a special case which doesn't apply to most
             | people. But also, why can't the CGM just have its own
             | display, which would simplify things a lot more and likely
             | also require much less power if it used e.g. eInk?
             | 
             | It sounds ridiculous to me that a medical-grade device
             | should _depend_ on a second consumer-grade device to be
             | useful. If it 's an added feature for e.g. logging or
             | monitoring or telemetry to the doctors, great, I
             | understand, but if you're just trying to get a glucose
             | reading I strongly believe in one device giving you that
             | reading instead of "Hey I'm a device that your health
             | insurance paid $1000 for but sorry I'm too lame to display
             | data and you're going to need to install this silly iPhone
             | app to actually read its values"
             | 
             | "and oh by the way we also will track your contacts, which
             | apps you are using, your GPS, and serve you and your
             | contacts targeted ads for glucose-free health foods from
             | our partners at Amazon"
        
               | ng12 wrote:
               | > why can't the CGM just have its own display
               | 
               | So I can check my blood sugar without taking my shirt
               | off.
        
       | olah_1 wrote:
       | "Passwordless technology" is just giving users their own keys.
       | 
       | How to provide a good onboarding and UX around that process is
       | another story. It requires educating the user to a different
       | mindset.
       | 
       | I advise looking into Argent[1] (Loopring is the same) or
       | BrightID[2] as just a few examples of how this can work well.
       | 
       | If you have no friends for social recovery, Argent provides their
       | own service that links to your email or phone for recovery. So
       | it's more like a typical account recovery that users are
       | accustomed to today.
       | 
       | Similarly, ZenGo[3] provides just that email/phone recovery
       | service alone but it feels intuitive and safe depending on your
       | threat vector. The cool thing about them is that it also uses
       | facial recognition.
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.argent.xyz/
       | 
       | [2]: https://www.brightid.org/
       | 
       | [3]: https://zengo.com/
        
       | dandanua wrote:
       | Asymmetric cryptography under the tonnes of bullshit marketing.
        
         | ng12 wrote:
         | Bullshit marketing is what CTOs buy. Who cares if the core
         | principles are simple or not, if they're selling a useful
         | service (especially one that can help secure our data) good on
         | them.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | This is the first I've heard of the product, but remind me why
         | building cryptography products and then marketing them is bad?
        
           | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
           | I don't know that it is bad per se, just pointing out that
           | this is a fairly simple existing technology and not some new
           | thing
        
             | CharlesW wrote:
             | Ah, gotcha. I'm always interested in tuning my bullshit
             | meter, but their top-level claims -- passwordless,
             | continuous authentication, improved user experience -- seem
             | pretty justifiable.
             | 
             | I use a good password manager right now, but even so I find
             | myself entering passwords _many_ times per day. I 'd love
             | to not have to do that, so any tips on how I can do that
             | are appreciated.
        
               | dandanua wrote:
               | It's fairly easy to build passwordless scheme.
               | 
               | 1. Service picks asymmetric scheme (RSA, ECDSA, etc.)
               | 
               | 2. User generates public/private pair of keys locally
               | 
               | 3. User registers its public key in the service
               | 
               | 4. Now user can sign anything thus confirming its
               | identity
               | 
               | No third-party service required. Users have to keep their
               | private keys locally, but BeyondIdentity also requires
               | this. I don't feel their complicated scheme has much
               | sense. Also they've mentioned the use of machine
               | learning, this looks even more strange.
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | Good of them to do this as if it's useful, we will find out
       | pretty fast. If they have a Vault integration, that would be
       | helpful as well. Solving IAM/IAA problems and designing products
       | are orthogonal concerns, and to me that they're building a
       | product around just managing asymmetric key pairs is a positive
       | note.
       | 
       | An authentication scheme is only ever as secure as its recovery
       | process, so that's going to be where the magic happens.
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-26 23:01 UTC)