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Ring on finger pic via Shutterstock

Google wants to replace your passwords with jewellery

Replacing all your passwords with one small chip in a ring? Don’t lose it.

WITH DIGITAL SECURITY only becoming more important, it’s no surprise that Google has a novel idea up its sleeve – rings!

MIT Technology Review has an in-depth look at how the company wants to use a ring to replace all your passwords for internet services.

As a proof of concept, the company is currently experimenting with a USB key that “performs a cryptographic transaction with an online service to prove the key’s validity when it’s plugged into a computer”.

The next step would be to condense this into a ring that can carry out the same function wirelessly. Pretty cool as long as you don’t lose it.

- Dylan Love

VIDEO: How Google’s offices looked back in 1999>

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tokidoll
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:44 PM

    With this ring I thee web

    461
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    Mute Cags David Cagney
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:45 PM

    Token of all I possess…

    80
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    Mute Tokidoll
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:48 PM

    Forsaking all other search engines

    160
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    Mute Tokidoll
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:29 PM

    Aww, that’s lovely :-)

    45
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    Mute timmy tells tales
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:44 PM

    I think its a bad idea because people lose rings when they go to Lidl to buy potatoes and fire logs.

    195
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    Mute Bo11ocks_to_this
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:33 PM

    I don’t want a chip in my ring. That would hurt!

    ;)

    117
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    Mute Cags David Cagney
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:44 PM

    Very funny, I thought it would have been all green thumbs in your ring…

    43
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    Mute 1 Human Being
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:09 PM

    “One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” Lord of the googlering.

    112
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    Mute Abi Dennis
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:44 PM

    Damn ya beat me to it!

    17
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    Mute Tokidoll
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:53 PM

    Digital technology – literally

    81
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    Mute graham galvin
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:50 PM

    another stepping stone to a microchipped population.what next iris scanning to get into your gmail account?

    76
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    Mute Paul Martin
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:53 PM

    Google Goggles

    77
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    Mute Julie-Anne Dunne
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:59 PM

    Love it Paul! Hope the invent it just to call them google Goggles :)

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:19 PM

    You should Google Google goggles.

    48
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    Mute Julie-Anne Dunne
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:09 PM

    Googling google goggles works coz i googled google goggles 2 check. Gona get myself some google goggles 4 giggles :)

    60
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    Mute Little Jim
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    Mar 12th 2013, 11:22 PM

    Nice ;)

    6
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    Mute Jonathan Medlar
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:17 PM

    Pain in the ring if you ask me…

    46
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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:20 PM

    1. Turn computer on.
    2. Allow computer to boot up.
    3. Draw curser to google icon
    4. Wave your ring at screen

    40
    dave
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    Mute dave
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:40 PM

    Ha ha ha ha love it

    8
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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:39 PM

    Anyone seen my ring !!!. Oh wait.

    30
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    Mute Cylon
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:02 PM

    It will go well with the ePad Femme.

    26
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    Mute Darran Murray
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:51 PM

    My precious

    23
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    Mute John Appleby
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:44 PM

    The three rings of any relationship – engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. Now google ring .

    16
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    Mute Mike Thomas
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:27 PM

    I wonder will they give us one, or will we have to pick our own ring ?

    16
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    Mute Jed I. Knight
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:42 PM

    Give? Google? The question may well be how much will they charge for these devices. If they are going to tout a device as more secure than a password we may come up with than there’s an expectation that this device will be secure They’re not going to give away NSA level security devices that they’ve been working on for several years, they’ll charge for them.

    9
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    Mute Ian Aston
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    Mar 12th 2013, 11:14 PM

    NSA use the same technology as everyone else and guess what? They pay for it. Should you not pay for this? Should Google pay for it?? Maybe I should work for free actually. If someone wants 2FA they should pay for it. This stuff isn’t free.

    “Oh it’s in the cloud, it doesn’t exist”. Yes it does. Even though they make bazillions of dollars, something like a platform independent 2FA mechanism is expensive to build and maintain.

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    Mute Gary Guilfoyle
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    Mar 12th 2013, 8:52 PM

    Whats wrong with biometrics using finger prints?

    14
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    Mute Conor Murphy
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:02 PM

    They can mold accurate enough fingerprints with melted gummy bears. Seriously.

    12
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    Mute Gary Guilfoyle
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:06 PM

    How is that easier than stealing a ring??

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    Mute Alorsh Lengh
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    Mar 14th 2013, 3:33 AM

    Maybe if and attacker has a less aggressive confront personality or if the ring holder has bodyguards…

    1
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    Mute Damocles
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:39 PM

    So if you want someone’s stuff you can rob them.

    Sounds great and well thought out.

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    Mute Niall B.
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    Mar 13th 2013, 7:46 AM

    You can just chop off their finger

    1
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    Mute George Brown
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:15 PM

    Mandatory implants are likely to happen in some fascist countries around the world. Eventually.

    In democratic societies however I imagine it’l be gradually fashionable to get yourself implanted. Just like its become fashionable to carry a GPS phone and public data devices with you everywhere. This jewelry is just the next fashionable step.

    Id feel worse for the people in future fascist societies. They’re going to become even more objectified.

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    Mute John G. Doyle
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:00 PM

    A microchip sounds better maybe in your hand or wrist

    12
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    Mute Sinead Fox
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    Mar 13th 2013, 10:30 AM

    That’s already here, the rfid chip! Been telling people about it for years and they thought i was nuts!! And already in the new laser/visa debit cards that you just wave in front of the machine. Implants have started on people and obviously the chip for the dogs is widespread!:~/

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    Mute Daithi O'Brien
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:19 PM

    I call The Green Lantern ring!

    11
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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:39 PM

    One ring to rule them all…
    And in the darkness bind them – if you lose it!

    9
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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:41 PM

    Ah no, I just read this and my commenr has been preceded! Nice one, both

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:44 PM

    1 human being and superfry.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Mar 12th 2013, 11:05 PM

    I too only noticed afterwards, we were both late to the party.

    6
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    Mute drahcir
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:46 PM

    I don’t see what is wrong with being microchipped, imagine the benefits with crime Etc, just insert it when your born and that will be it! It’s the best idea to stop and catch all the crap in the world!

    9
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    Mute Damocles
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:01 PM

    Well it’s not a foolproof system.

    12
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    Mute Sinead Fox
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    Mar 13th 2013, 10:36 AM

    So they can tax each footstep you take, watch every move you make, no need for speed cameras they’ll know before you will that your speeding and now that your bank account will be also on the chip they can just debit it straight out.

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    Mute Alorsh Lengh
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    Mar 14th 2013, 3:42 AM

    Don’t you think when you give that kind of power to some government it may become hard to ask them not to abuse it.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:13 PM

    One ring to Google them all.

    9
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    Mute Ian Aston
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:36 PM

    2 factor authentication has been around a long time – something you have and something you know. Smartcards, pin tokens for online banking. RSA and ActivIdentity have been doing this for years. No difference with a ring than a token you wear on a keyring

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    Mute Ronan Stokes
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:49 PM

    Indeed, very very secure. However a pain in the giblets when they get out of sync.

    5
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    Mute Ian Aston
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    Mar 12th 2013, 10:05 PM

    You’re not wrong! It’s the same technology though, my point is this is nothing new. There’s lots of 2FA implementations around already, this announcement from google isn’t ground breaking or a new idea. Plus, even with an encrypted personal key on a ring or token or whatever, you would still need a pin or password to pair with it or your data is at risk by someone that nicks your token.

    Even implanted chips (which aren’t a new idea either) or biometrics for secure platforms should be paired with something you know. Sick as it sounds, a finger can be cut off or a chip can be extracted…

    At the end of the day, a determined attacker will get your data no matter where it is. Social engineering is the biggest threat to digital systems.

    How many times have I heard “my Facebook or Gmail account has been hacked”? Eh no, someone either guessed your password because you didn’t use a complicated one or someone you know got access to your account because you are sloppy and left it logged in. Username and password is” reasonably” secure and fit for purpose for most things so long as you are sensible about it.

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Mar 13th 2013, 10:15 AM

    Wasn’t there a story recently about a fingerprint reader which also detects whether there is a pulse? The idea being that you can’t just cut off someone’s finger to get access.

    The other thing that I’m always surprised about is that 2FA rarely includes a duress password, which has been basic stuff in alarm systems for decades.

    2
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    Mute mr_bean_007
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:13 PM

    Lookup ‘google authenticator’ app if you want to make your account more secure. I do after my gmail account was hacked

    5
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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Mar 13th 2013, 2:29 AM

    We are already “microchipped” Drachir.
    It’s called DNA.
    In the near future probably every child born will be “DNA Profiled”.
    This will obviate the need all other forms of ID for the rest of the person’s life.

    3
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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Mar 13th 2013, 6:59 AM

    Yes I will provided they buy.

    3
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    Mute Tom Keating
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    Mar 12th 2013, 9:43 PM

    Only valid if you use Gmail and related products from Google that require a login. Nice idea but not realistic as not everyone will wear a ring. Problem already solved, get a RSA token!

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    Mute Liz (10) (^_^)
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    Mar 12th 2013, 11:52 PM

    So basically like A.J’s Time Travellers.

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    Mute Seamus Foskin
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    Mar 12th 2013, 11:43 PM

    captain planet hes a hero who going to take pollution to to zero. they used rings did they not http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo0D6bzxLLw

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    Mute Kaue Seoane
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    Mar 14th 2013, 4:01 PM

    It’s a joke?

    1
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