many companies use a tokenbased method already for employees to access networks securely already activcard s method is more complex it is currently trailing its onetime passcode generation technology with uk banks steve ash from activcard told the bbc news website there are two parts to the process of identification the most difficult is to ascertain whether an individual is who they say they are when they are online the end solution is to provide a method where you combine something the user knows with something they have and present those both the method it has developed makes use of the chip embedded in bank cards and a special card reader which can generate unique codes that are active for a specified amount of time this can be adjusted at any time and can be active for as little as 30 seconds before it changes it combines that with usual usernames and passwords as well as other security questions you take the card put it in the reader enter your pin number and a code is given if you wanted then to transfer funds for instance you would have to have the code to authorise the transaction the clever bit happens back at the bank s secure servers the code is validated by the bank s systems matching the information they expect with the customer s unique key each individual gets a key which is unique to them it is a 2048bit long number that is virtually impossible to crack said mr ash it means that in a typical security attack explains mr ash even if password information is captured by a scammer using keystroke software or just through spoof websites they need the passcode by the time they go back to use the information the code has expired so they can t prove who they are according to mr ash in the next few years mr ash predicts that this kind of method will be commonplace before we see biometric authentication that is acceptable for widespread use pcs will have readers built into them the cost of readers will be very cheap and more people will have the cards the gadgets we carry around like personal digital assistants pdas and mobiles could also have integrated card reader technology in them the pda or phone method is a possible alternative as people are always carrying phones around he said