Michael Daniel, the president’s cybersecurity coordinator, said: “Kill the password dead as a primary security measure.” He went on to say that as more devices connect to the Internet, we need to develop new ways of confirming our identities.

Lorrie Faith Cranor, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, who has studied passwords, said: "I would love to kill the password dead, but I don’t know what we can replace it with that would be viable now."

Hackers have many ways of fooling people into giving up their passwords from phishing emails to phone calls or they use sophisticated software to flood systems with educated guesses.

Some alternatives that are being tossed around are:

• Apps that unlock your phone only when they see your face.

• Fingerprint readers and retina scanners that connect to PCs.

• Wearable devices that automatically fill in your passwords but lock your computer when you step away.

All have their flaws.

Fingerprints can be snatched by a hacker.

Faces to open our devices can be monitored by the government to track movements.

A combination of password and electronic device may be the most user friendly.

Source: Dispatch