DEMOfall 08: Usable Security Systems gives you a login you can remember without being a security risk
Usable Security Systems has an interesting proposition for people who just don’t want to bother with having secure passwords. Secure passwords are gobbledygook — you type combinations of letters, symbols and numbers so that your password can’t be easily guessed.
But the company has figured out a way let you get away with an easily-remembered password without giving up security on all of your login sites. You go to the UsableLogin site and use a simple password. The site verifies your identity using a couple of different authentication means. You provide, for instance, a photo to UsableLogin that only you can recognize. It then creates secure passwords for all of the sites you visit. When you visit those sites, you can type your simple password to get into them.
The code word you type in never leaves your computer and so it isn’t easy to intercept. The interesting thing is that you can authorize certain computers as part of your allowed hardware. You can authorize or de-authorize specific pieces of hardware. If you go on vacation, you can de-authorize your desktop at home.
The product is the result of work done by Rachna Dhamja, founder and chief executive of the company, who worked on the technology for her doctorate from UC Berkeley. The company competes with other two-factor authentication methods such as RSA, Verisign, Arcot and Tricipher.
The company raised a $1 million seed round led by CommerceNet.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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