Comment by dspillett | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dspillett | Hacker News Reader

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> This isn't a problem for banks, why is it a problem for tech companies?

Banks have the option of you physically going into the branch and identifying yourself with relevant legally backed forms of ID. That would not really work for most online companies.

Other methods which involve sending in copies of ID and/or letters signed by appropriate notaries would fail due to human engineering too because your average tech company isn't going to have people sat ready who are capable of accurately verifying this information.

The other problem is PR: due to the lack of another option the average person who is locked out of their account will instantly turn to twitter/facebook/any-where-else-they-can-post and scream as loud as they can that they've been mistreated by company X. Many other average persons will take this at face value without checking the fats and start avoiding company X, or worse bombarding them with communication in support of the inconvenienced user.

> Banks have the option of you physically going into the branch and identifying yourself with relevant legally backed forms of ID.

Not always true! Less than a month ago I needed to login to my Wells Fargo account. Unbeknownst to me, they had been doing some 'upgrades' and there were some glitches. After a frustrating period, I decide I'd just go to the physical branch 1/4 mile from my house and get this fixed!

On site, the bank personnel have access to exactly the same system that I did. (At least they knew there were glitches and sorta how to work around them.) I had two accounts, one for a credit card that I rarely used and my mortgage. Turns out, if you have a credit card then the new system requires a piece of information only found on the physical card - the onsite employees couldn't get around and neither could their call-in tech support!!!!

Point is - for log-in purposes - don't assume going to a physical branch will be any more helpful!

Since I didn't have the credit card with me ('cause rarely used) I canceled the rarely used credit card and was able to login shortly thereafter.

Banks don't try that hard. One of my bank is happy to resend me a password by snail mail with an account ID reset by phone.

Also, rechecking the ID of a user can be as simple as asking for a new token payment by the same credit card as used by the account. It's not infailable, the CC can be compromised as well, but it should be way better than what we have now.

> One of my bank is happy to resend me a password by snail mail with an account ID reset by phone.

This is excellent security, as long as they're not sending it to an address you provided over the phone when you requested a reset.

Actually, this could be an interesting and lucrative side business for banks, identity verification. You could have varying levels of verification, requiring varying levels of authenticating documentation and numbers of employees to review and vouch that could then be used to provide a certificate of verification for a service.

E.g. namecheap.com generates verification ticket item requiring valid identification and SSN that Bank of America then uses to verify your identity for $30, and vouched for the identity. Meanwhile Goldman Sachs generates a verification ticket requiring much more strenuous authentication, and the bank charges $200 for (with increased insurance, etc), which satisfies the much higher validation standard the Goldman Sachs requires to authenticate you for your ritrement account with over $X in it, etc.

There are quite a few banks that don't have physical locations you can go to.

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