(Bloomberg View) — This week, Google's e-mail service Gmail made a tiny change to its log-in procedure. A first screen asks for a username and leads to a separate screen asking for a password. It's a sign of big things to come.

Omer Karatas, a co-founder of the digital security start-up Saaspass, recently told me that participants in last month's RSA conference in San Francisco — a forum for cryptographers and cybersecurity professionals — were in broad agreement that passwords were an unacceptable risk. "There was a panel with the heads of security of Dropbox, Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Google for Work, Microsoft 365," Karatas said, "and when asked about what the biggest issue for the Internet that needed solving, it was like a chorus: 'Passwords need to go.' The only question is how.'"

QuickTakeCybersecurity

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.