EBay hack underscores need for a more secure internet

EBay’s warning for users to reset their passwords in the wake of a cyberattack will likely shut out online intruders for now. But are passwords enough?

Cyber threat analysts have some other ideas — retina scanners, fingerprint sensors, so-called "two-factor authentication," and a futuristic "uncrackable" encryption technique involving photons transmitted through optical wires.

It’s all part of a suite of protective measures being used to combat cybercrime in an era when would-be thieves have targeted the databases of online auction sites, exploited the Heartbleed bug and hacked into computers running Internet Explorer.

Although biometrics have been touted as an alternative to passwords, physical identification tools aren’t necessarily infallible either.

"If you look at the eBay attack, that wasn’t a flaw of passwords; that was a flaw of their perimeter security," said Ben FitzGerald, director of technology and national security at the Center for a New American Security.

Read the full article at CBC News.