So, prompted by a rather amusing bit of flamage over on
dear_gnome, I posted what I think is a fairly edumacated opinion on Blizzard's authenticator, and why it's generally a good idea if you are anything more then just a 'casual gamer' or have some form of attachment to the one's and zero's that make up your character(s).
I mentioned that even three factor security (what you know, what you have, and what you *are*) can be beaten, and here's the explaination for it:
while I was at [ISP], we had a pair of identical twins that worked in our department. I was down at one of our secure facilities one day with both of them to do some work, and the following occurred. Now, the facility uses three factor authentication just to get in the door: a handprint scanner with an attached PIN device, and an RFID access card. Here's how it all broke down:
1. Brother A puts hand on scanner.
2. Brother B enters his PIN code, and then badges in the door, which
opens.
3. Security, along with the three of us, go 'WTF!?!?!?!' and demand a repeat, which they cheerfully do.
Now, I reckon that compromise was largely due to the fact that they were identical twins, and that handprint scanners in general have a pretty shitty false-positive rate, even when calibrated properly. It was still amusing though.
For the large part, though, most companies use two factor authentication when single factor is not enough. Said two factor methods generally consist of a PIN/ passcode, and either a keyfob, access card, or a biometric scanner, in decending order of acceptance.
Personally, I find it funny that blizzard is moving to a two factor system for what most mundanes consider a
game, although the fact that they are also partially subsidizing it to boost uptake (it's sold at a small loss, and you also get a cute in-game non-combat pet as well) does indicate that they are serious about it.
[Originally posted on
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