It is difficult to realize, but at the moment there is an imperceptible revaluation of values. In which the mobile phone begins to play a very indispensable role. Those qualities and those properties that we use and which have been ousted from the world of things, for example, a clock, a camera, a voice recorder, a notebook, a flashlight, etc., are complemented by one very valuable feature – the authenticator.
Increasingly, and for the most part enforced, we, as users, are switching to multi-factor authentication. In addition to knowing the password, pin-code, we are required to have something. Security requires additional evidence that an anonymous user for the system is you. The system has not gone, or has not yet gone the way of identification with biometric data (and may not be able to go due to the heightened requirements of the GDPR for sensitive data — which are biometric data). More often, we are faced with the need to use a calculator, codes, code cards, enter the code from SMS and (!!!) give confirmation from a specially application on the phone.
“For me, charging a daily smartphone is a ritual that cannot be missed.”
The latest authentication tool is actively supported by banks. Google in the proposed dual-authentication conveniently used the same device. In this lie both pluses and huge minuses. The main disadvantage is the health and performance of the device. For me, charging a daily smartphone is a ritual that cannot be missed. A low battery charge is the same as an empty tank in the desert where there is not a living soul for 200-300 kilometers.
Banks have pretty strongly established dependence on this authentication tool. But can it be considered reliable, really reliable.
Recently, a bank authenticator, which I use, has literally failed for several minutes. I certainly wanted to make a money transfer and then I remembered the code cards that were still stored in my wallet. Hurray, I thought, and … I could not move beyond the field – a permanent password. I have not used it for more than a year, changing it regularly at the request of the same bank.
“But what happens if one easy authentication fails? “
Google has a number of alternatives, perhaps many of them are not reliable, but there are alternatives. Banks, for example, offer (inconvenient) calculators and convenient applications. But what happens if one easy authentication fails? While I did not find the answer, I still hope for the operability of the device and software, although from the point of view of risks this situation moves from the category of low-medium risks to non-permissible ones.