Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jayfuerstenberg 4732 days ago
Exactly. I live in Japan and the inkan is the bane of my existence.

I can go to the bank teller, offer them my driver's license, citizenship card and can recite the PIN code to them but they won't believe I'm me and let me access my money.

Show them my plastic stamp and I'm magically me! I could give it to another individual and he could withdraw money from my account, no questions asked.

Possession is simply not security.

2 comments

While LaunchKey relies of physical possession as an authentication factor at its most basic level, LaunchKey provides and encourages the use of multi-factor authentication through additional factors such as a knowledge factor (PIN or Combo Lock) and inherence factor (geographic location). Comparing a single factor of authentication, as is the case with a password (knowledge) or Inkan (possession), to that of the multi-factor authentication found in LaunchKey (possession + knowledge + inherence) is a fallacy.
Possession in the case of authentication is used for starting our cars, entering our homes and seems to be used in Japan for banking. We all have keys in our pocket that we rely on for security.