You know what the world really needs? I mean, beyond the basics of peace, good healthcare, plentiful food, and no more Google?
Security. We need improved security that is also easy to use. User IDs and passwords are not enough; they’re challenging to use, and apparently easy to crack. No, the tech world needs a few more security levels that work like this one.
Apple To The Rescue
If there is to be a winner among tech gadget companies who create a bona fide, A-No.1, triple-distilled security solution, it will be Apple.
Every week we hear of more security breaches and hacker attacks. What has Apple done to help the great unwashed masses of gadget users?
Let’s start with the most obvious, and what is likely to be the first of a number of security levels as Apple ramps up a security offensive.
Touch ID.
That’s Apple’s new security access mode for the iPhone 5s, but one that’s likely to show up in future iPad mini and iPad Air models, if not the Mac itself.
Why?
Touch ID works very well, and will work even better as iOS 8 is rolled out with applications that take advantage of the fingerprint ID security within an app.
The developers of the popular 1Password application, the one that manages passwords, are showing off what can be done by blending a password manager app with Touch ID.
Touch ID can be used to unlock 1Password, then enter passwords in Safari or other web browsers by using… drum roll, please… Touch ID. That means you can still have a gazillion user IDs and passwords for different accounts, websites, or whatever, but all of them can be unlocked with the touch of your finger.
Alright, let’s carry that forward a bit. Retina scanner, meet biometric sensor. Let your iPhone (or, iPad, or Mac) do the heavy lifting to identify that you are who you say you are. Fingerprint ID, retina scan, biometric sensor, facial and voice recognition.
Suddenly, your mobile devices have become ultra secure. Without all the right body parts, nobody gets in to muck around with your data. Apple’s forte here is making basic systems work well. Touch ID wasn’t the first fingerprint ID system. It was merely the first that works right.
Now Apple is putting the pieces together that keep devices easy to use, yet more secure than ever. Don’t laugh. Over the next few years Apple could add a retina scanner, a voice and facial recognition combo, and even biometric sensors which, when combined, create a massive improvement in security.
