Technology Obsession and Liberal Arts

‘PIN’ is an abbreviation of ‘Personal Identification Number’, which is unexceptionally used as an authenticator, not an identifier.

‘Password’ is defined by the central police agency as ‘Personal Identification Code’ in a country where I was grown up.

Quite a few people utter such a word as ‘Password Identification’ here and there.

This awkward phenomenon is found not only in the general public but among the ‘professionals’ of cyber security and identity management although the difference between ‘identification’ and ‘authentication is unmistakably clear; ‘Identification’ is to give an answer to the question of ‘Who is he/she?’, while ‘Authentication’ is to answer ‘Is he/she the person who claims to be?’

How on earth would it be possible to mix them up? Our hypothesis is that the field of cybersecurity and identity management is too heavily populated by single-mindedly technology-obsessed people.

On the other hand, there are quite a few people who talk about the vulnerabilities of biometrics.  But the real problem is well beyond it.  Biometrics is not only a major vulnerability but a grave threat to cyber security.  And yet, there are still so many security professionals who promote biometrics for ‘achieving higher security’.

This deplorable situation has urged me to write a comprehensive analysis of the real picture of security-lowering biometrics - 'Negative Security Effect of Biometrics Deployed in Cyberspace'

Conclusion: We wish to see the people in security and identity management to be more interested in liberal arts or common sense. Digital identity is a problem of philosophy as well as technology.