The days of the humble password are clearly numbered, and John McAfee, that always colourful character from the security world, has his own invention which he believes will hammer the final nails into the coffin of the traditional user/password combination – the EveryKey.
EveryKey is basically a little Bluetooth dongle which you can carry around (or slip on a key-ring), and it provides access to all your password protected devices – so that’s your phone, laptop, tablet, PC and so forth, plus also your website logins and even potentially your car or the front door of your house.
When you’re near a device with the EveryKey on your person, it automatically unlocks the hardware. When you walk away and the EveryKey is out of proximity, the hardware is automatically locked again. Clever stuff, eh?
It’s certainly clever enough to have more than trebled its funding goal on Indiegogo, hitting over $66,000 (around £45,000, or AU$90,000) at the time of writing with still just under two weeks of the campaign left to go (as Kitguru reports, McAfee has already run a successful Kickstarter campaign, scooping almost $120,000, which is around £80,000 or AU$165,000).
Remote kill
It’s certainly a hugely convenient idea in terms of a security device, but what of the potential problems your mind is probably already mulling over? The issue which is probably foremost in your noggin is what happens if you lose the thing…
The good news is that if you happen to misplace EveryKey (or are unfortunate enough to have your gadget stolen) you can remotely disable it.
Furthermore, passwords aren’t actually stored on the EveryKey itself, but rather in encrypted form on your respective devices. And when EveryKey transmits data to identify itself and unlock your devices, it boasts AES 128-bit encryption, and uses a spoof prevention system to prevent hackers from tapping into a message and rebroadcasting it in an attempt to crack into a piece of hardware.
You can currently order McAfee’s gadget for $128 (around £85, or AU$175) on Indiegogo not including shipping, with the delivery date currently set at March 2016.
Source: techradar.com