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In a presentation at this year's RSA Conference, taking place in San Francisco this week, Dr L Jean Camp, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington in the US, and her doctoral candidate Sanchari Das, detailed their research into why people aren't using Yubico security keys or Google’s hardware tokens for multi-factor authentication (MFA).
For those who don't know: typically, you use these gadgets to provide an extra layer of security when logging into systems. You enter your username and password as usual, then plug the USB-based key into your computer and tap a button to activate it. The thing you're trying to log into checks the username and password are correct, and that the physical key is valid and tied to your account, before letting you in.
That means a crook has to know your username and password, and have your physical key to log in as you. We highly recommend you investigate activating MFA on your online accounts, particularly important ones such as your webmail.
What the pair found during their research work derails any previous assumptions that the lack of MFA uptake is because people are stupid, or can't use the technology. What it comes down to is education and communicating risk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:32PM
Making people do things is always hard. It's seen as being forced to do something and there is almost always resistance involved in that.
The big factors holding 2FA back is are:
Lack of a single solution. SMS call back, RSA "tokens", software tokens, yubikey, etc. And none work everywhere. Too many solutions for people to adopt.
Security. Most sites I'm on only use SMS call back, which has been proven to be insecure. People read that and their trust falls even further.
Trust. Companies are falling all over themselves to reduce the trust people have in them (breaches, etc.). Why trust this if the company still fails in other ways?
There are more reasons. 2FA is a great thing. The tech community has failed in making it easy and secure enough for the average person to use it everywhere.