Verizon’s Patrick Coomans Calls for Better Identity Authentication

Patrick Coomans, a security specialist at Verizon Enterprise Solutions, has urged enterprises to relook their password strategies and work toward adopting more secure methods of authenticating identities.

Coomans, senior identity strategist at Verizon’s identity solutions division, wrote on the company blog Wednesday that the proliferation of common password use, coupled with lightning-fast password-guessing software at the hands of hackers have contributed to data breach growth.

He noted recent analysis of a list containing 32 million stolen passwords found that 20 percent came from a relatively small pool of 5,000 access codes, with “1234,” “password,” and “iloveyou” among the top of the list.

“My conclusion is that the secret to mass adoption of a more secure authentication method is, quite simply, that it must be easier than typing in a username and ‘123456,’” Coomans said.

“The user interaction must be minimal and be based on something most people have with them all the time and care about.”