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The blogging platform Medium knows that passwords are easily to forget, hard to recover, have security flaws, and people reuse them although they shouldn’t. In order to make their users forget about the password hassles the site found a clever way of signing in no password asked.
Until recently you could only sign in into the blogging site by using either your Facebook or Twitter account. But as of now, users will have the option of signing in by using just their e-mail address.
Jamie Talbot a spokesperson at Medium said that the company is aware signing in is a serious business. So, the site tries to improve user experience and find a way of getting rid of the pesky passwords.
The process is simple and secure and will be available on all platforms.
Mr. Talbot also said that passwords in general were far from being simple or secure because many people fail to design a strong password, or if they do they forget it the next day. Moreover, users usually use the same password for various accounts although they know it is not safe. Also it is very hard to type passwords on mobile phones because people fat-finger them all the times.
The site’s new authentication system will provide three options – log in from Twitter, Facebook or personal e-mail address. If you opt for e-mail authentication you’ll only need to write the e-mail address and wait for a few seconds until the site sends you a message with a link.
You should look for the message in your inbox and click the sign-in link to log in. But you’ll need to do that within 15 minutes because after that moment the link expires.
Mr. Talbot argued that the new system is even more secure than any passwords though it may seem counter-intuitive at a first glance. He explained that when a hacker cracks a password they will have access to your account until you manage to set a new password. But the hacker can be so subtle that you won’t know they have access to your account for a long time or fail to know it at all.
But the new system will brief you whenever an intruder tries to sign in using you e-mail.
Medium doesn’t drop the Facebook or Twitter authentication option. If you created the account through those platforms you have a third option of signing in using the mail you had provided upon account creation.
A research team from Binghamton University is also currently looking for a way of making passwords obsolete – an authentication process that measures the types of reactions your brain has to certain type of words, or the so-called “brain-print.”
Image Source: Wired
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