Free - Usability & security: Unlikely bedfellows?

With an ever increasing online population - 41 million users in the UK alone (source: Internet World Stats) - computer security and user authentication have never been more vital. Unusable security is expensive as well as ineffective. According to Password research, two-thirds of users had to reset their passwords/PINs three or more times in the last 2 years. With each password reset estimated at £35 in help desk costs (source: Mandylion research labs) it's easy to see how expensive an affair this can be.

What's the future?

Passfaces

Should passwords disappear then what'll replace them? An alternative is a system called 'passfaces' that utilises our innate ability to recognise faces with speed and accuracy. Users are required to correctly select their pre-chosen faces from a random set in order to gain access. Passfaces has already been implemented by a number of websites.

Random number generators

Some online banking customers are being sent chip-and-pin card readers to add a layer of security. A lot of banks and large corporations are using tokens such as random number generators in addition to passwords to increase security.

Biometrics

Another alternative is biometrics where a person's physical or behavioural characteristics such as fingerprint, iris or voice are used for authentication. Examples include laptops with built-in fingerprint readers and the new biometric passports in the UK.

These approaches aren't solutions in themselves but will have to consider the human as being central to the whole authentication process in order to succeed.

In a nutshell

Traditionally, security has been considered more important than usability. In reality, security measures only succeed when users' needs are taken into consideration. Contrary to popular belief, security and usability can and should go hand in hand. Let's hope whatever replaces passwords is designed with usability in mind so we don't have to lose ours!

This article was written by Mrudula Kodali. Mru's crazy about usability - so crazy that she works for Webcredible, an industry leading user experience consultancy. When not developing information architecture she can often be found doing interaction design.