You can stop worrying about Internet security, because Google has a fix for your problem! If you pay them for it.
Actually, you don’t pay Google for the security measure, you pay them for a “better” Google Apps account and the extra security layer is bundled in.
OK, actually, that might not be precisely correct, either. Paid Google Apps users are getting the feature first, and Google plans to roll it out to everyone “in a few months”.
When you get the new security measure, Google will be bringing the equivalent of one of those little RSA-key dongles that anyone who’s ever worked for a big company and needed to work from outside the office has encountered. It will run from your SmartPhone (no extra hardware to carry!), and while making the log-in process a bit more difficult it will all but guarantee that your account can’t be hacked since the password will change. How often? RSA passwords expire every sixty seconds; expect Google to at least match that standard.
Big deal? Actually, yes. But the question is this: now that we’ve gotten used to the inherently not-secure nature of the Internet, is using the Google technique, requiring both a Google Apps account and that you use other Google software good for you? Or for Google?
I love Google . . . except when I hate them. And I use a bunch of their software, including my beloved Droid. But moves like this make me more scared than happy or comforted.
Hack away, friends. Your window for doing so is closing. . .
Trackbacks/Pingbacks