The case against traditional passwords — and how biometrics can better secure us

Passwords have been around for millennia. Thousands of years before the advent of the computer, the Roman military would use what Polybius described as a watchword to distinguish ally from enemy. Similarly, during the Battle of Normandy, US paratroopers used constantly changing call-and-response passwords – flash would be responded to with thunder, for example — to establish friend from foe. …