I see that there's an article on VeriSign's plan to bolster their profit margins by exploiting parental fears online safety for children.
"The token, which plugs into a computer's USB port, will allow children to encrypt e-mail, to access kid-safe sites and to purchase items that require a digital signature, said George Schu, a vice president at Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign."
So I suppose that if you have a kid-only web site, the idea is that this would prevent child-molesting adults from logging in.
Sounds like a great idea. All you have to do is insure that not a single USB dongle given to a child (all ~48 million of them in the US) is lost or stolen. Oh, and that Verisign never gives a key to anyone that isn't a child. Of course, they've previously given out keys for microsoft.com to someone fraudulently posing as as a Microsoft representative -- and there's only one Microsoft, not 48 million -- but they've probably worked the bugs out of that process by now.
This really sounds like a problem that Verisign has invented. Even if you think this is a real problem, it's really hard to see how this can possibly have any positive real effect.
Posted by Mike at February 13, 2004 11:55 PM