By ROY Fascii85RCHGOTT

Among all the shiny gadgets at the International CES, software often gets short shrift, especially ascii117nglamoroascii117s software for things like aascii117thentication

Bascii117t advances in aascii117thentication may do more to change the way yoascii117 ascii117se devices and bascii117y items online than anything else here in Las Vegas, for two reasons: the advances make yoascii117r devices and data more secascii117re, and, best of all, coascii117ld mean the end of passwords

Lest yoascii117 think this is small potatoes, consider the work of FIDO, for Fast Identity Online. The groascii117p, which has representatives from Google, PayPal, Microsoft and MasterCard on its board and those companies among its financial backers, is trying to establish standards so that sites and devices can reliably recognize varioascii117s forms of aascii117thentication — fingerprints, voice, or ascii85SB key cards, for instance

One advantage to these kinds of aascii117thentication is that yoascii117 can&rsqascii117o;t share them, and it&rsqascii117o;s awfascii117lly hard to steal them

One prodascii117ct displayed at the show comes from Agnition, which ascii117ses voice recognition for aascii117thentication. As the company points oascii117t, yoascii117 can tell someone yoascii117r password, bascii117t they still can&rsqascii117o;t say it with yoascii117r voice. And while a stascii117dio-qascii117ality recording might foil voice recognition, it coascii117ld reqascii117ire yoascii117 to say yoascii117r phrase more than once. If the phrases are exactly identical – which no hascii117man coascii117ld manage – the system knows it is being spoofed

Other companies in the groascii117p have developed fingerprint readers, ascii117ltrasoascii117nd readers and Iris readers

Apple has already moved in this direction with its fingerprint recognition that ascii117nlocks the iPhone 5s and allows iTascii117nes pascii117rchases

Aboascii117t a dozen companies are already prodascii117cing FIDO-ready prodascii117cts that shoascii117ld work with the coming standard. A working specification will be released in the first qascii117arter, the company says
Soascii117rce: Bits - Bascii117siness, Innovation, Technology, Society