
An alumnus of the University of Oregon, Dominic O’Dierno is the CEO of Amare LCC, a consulting firm. In addition, Dominic O’Dierno works as a senior consultant at Q5id, an identity enrollment and authentication company.
One of the key components of authenticating an identity is proofing, the process of confirming a person is who they claim to be before allowing them access to particular software or databases. There are various methods used to achieve identity proofing. One is Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA).
KBA requires an individual to give answers to security questions based on personal information set by them. They often include questions like “What is the name of your first pet?”. The advantage of the KBA method is that it is user-friendly, but its biggest drawback is it is easy for a hacker to get answers to the questions. Also, users tend to forget the answers to their questions.
Another method of identity proofing is two-factor authentication. It is a stronger method than KBA because it mandates that users must give a form of personal identity, often known as a token, in addition to their standard username and password before accessing an account. Usually, the token would be sent to the users on request, and users would be encouraged to take a picture or write it down.