Hacker News Reader

Comment by jchysk | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand the Inkan comparison. The Inkan just looks like a unique seal so that someone knows a document is legitimate. That seems more comparable to something like signing with your private key. Care to explain?

View on HN

I think he was suggesting anyone can get a hold of your inkan and use it to sign things in your name.

I suppose I can stretch a bit and see that. Of course if you lose your inkan, you'd probably notice it was missing. If someone gets hold of your password (which may not even be your fault) there's a good chance you won't realize it has been compromised until too late.

Exactly. I live in Japan and the inkan is the bane of my existence.

I can go to the bank teller, offer them my driver's license, citizenship card and can recite the PIN code to them but they won't believe I'm me and let me access my money.

Show them my plastic stamp and I'm magically me! I could give it to another individual and he could withdraw money from my account, no questions asked.

Possession is simply not security.

While LaunchKey relies of physical possession as an authentication factor at its most basic level, LaunchKey provides and encourages the use of multi-factor authentication through additional factors such as a knowledge factor (PIN or Combo Lock) and inherence factor (geographic location). Comparing a single factor of authentication, as is the case with a password (knowledge) or Inkan (possession), to that of the multi-factor authentication found in LaunchKey (possession + knowledge + inherence) is a fallacy.

Possession in the case of authentication is used for starting our cars, entering our homes and seems to be used in Japan for banking. We all have keys in our pocket that we rely on for security.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com