Lack of coordination between online user authentication
systems is helping identity thieves as users struggle to handle
multiple passwords, a UN agency has warned.
The Geneva based International Telecommunication Union urged
businesses and regulators to consider streamlining identification
and authentication systems to increase the security of personal
data on the internet.
In a report released ahead of the ITU’s Telecom World 2006
conference in Hong Kong, the agency warned that computer users now
need so many passwords and user names that many simply reuse the
same identification details on multiple sites.
“This may cause security breaches, and leave them vulnerable to
the machinations of identity thieves ever increasing in number and
inventiveness,” the ITU report warned.
IT added: “The lack of coordination in identification systems is
a source of growing inconvenience to users and needs to be
addressed rapidly.”
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