Identity Assurance

We started to use this phrase five years ago as a use case of Expanded Password System that provides ‘Hard-to-Forget’, ‘Hard-to-Break’ and ‘Panic-Proof’ digital identity authentication platform, though it was no more than a hypothetical statement at that time. We now witness the pandemic has assaulted us before we get ready.   We were unfortunately late for the current Covid-19. When, not if, the next one hits us in 5, 10 or 20 years ahead, humans will probably be yet more heavily dependent on Digital Identity.   We or our successors will hopefully be able to make a meaningful contribution to the safe and resilient cyber life. While waiting to see what will be happening in the pandemic-overwhelmed cyberspace, we will be steadily progressing Expanded Password System in order to make it readily available to all the global citizens. Click the link for more of Expanded Password System https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proposition-how-build-sustainable-digital-identity...

This article is a copy of the proposition shortlisted in the category of “Best innovation in security management – Who has done the most to protect consumer data” for “FDATA Global Open Finance Summit & Awards 2019”. This article is not a hypothesis. The versatile practicability of the EPS software is demonstrated by the 5-year use by 140, 000 online shoppers, the 6-year use by 1,200 employees for a corporate network and the trouble-free military use by army soldiers in the field from 2013 till now with the users increasing 10-fold and set to increase further;   photos of toys, dolls, dogs and cats , for example, that our children used to love for years would jump into our eye even when we are placed in heavy pressure and caught in severe panic. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proposition-how-build-sustainable-digital-identity-platform-kokumai/

When the computing power was very limited, we were only able to use texts, namely, characters and numbers, as the secret credential for identity authentication.   Now that the computing power is no longer so limited, we could accept non-text credentials such as visual images, audio sounds and tactile sensations where they contribute to better security and/or better usability. Humans acquired the ability of reading, writing and remembering texts quite recently - a few hundred years ago for the majority of our ancestors. On the other hand, our ability of seeing, watching, finding, distinguishing and remembering visual objects dates back to 5 hundred million years ago. This ability is solidly inscribed at the deep layer of the brains for all of us. Separately, we know that cognitive science supports that our episodic memory, much of which is visual, is the core of humans’ internal identity. Would it be possible to not make use of our episodic image memory for our identit...

Using two factors together does not always bring higher security.   Higher security is obtained when two factors are used in ‘multi-layer’ deployment at the sacrifice of convenience, while better convenience is obtained when two factors are used in ‘multi-entrance’ deployment at the sacrifice of security. We must be careful not to mix up these two ways of deployments that have exactly the opposite security effects lest a serious false sense of security should be created and spread. For more discussions, click the link https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quantitative-examination-multiple-authenticator-hitoshi-kokumai/

AFCEA called for propositions for ‘2020 Solution Review Problem Sets’ which was intended to answer to U.S. Army Chief Information Officer who is seeking solutions to emerging or existing challenges. We submitted an abstract of our proposition for Item #3 and were notified that our abstract is kept on-file as a backup and will be included in the compendium of the abstracts that is made available to CIO/G6 leadership. We are very pleased to see this positive development. As mentioned in the abstract, our proposition is not a hypothesis, but is substantiated by the trouble-free military use in the field from 2013 till now with the number of users increasing 10-fold and set to continue to increase further. Click the link for the full text https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proposition-afcea-hitoshi-kokumai/

Many people are talking about the security-enhancing effect of 2-factor authentication, with two factors used together in a ‘multi-layer’ deployment, as against a security-lowering ‘multi-entrance’ deployment. We could suggest a very simple two factor scheme that everyone can start right now at no cost– the first factor is a password that you can remember (what we know) and the second is a memo/storage on which a very long password is written/stored on (what we possess). If you opt to store the second password on a memory storage and use 'Copy & Paste' for feeding it in the password field following typing your remembered password, you could easily manage a combined password that can stand fierce brute force attacks as well as stealth of the memory storage. This is what I myself do for dozens of accounts without involving the so-called master-password which makes a single point of failure. Further details are presented here – “Improvised 2-factor authentication...

People in identity management appear to be busy discussing 'Security-First’ and ‘Convenience-First'.   We would like to say ‘Wait a minute! Those discussions could be valid only where citizens are given a means to get themselves somehow authenticated in the first place. Where it is not the case, there would be no ‘Security-First’ nor ‘Convenience-First'. We believe that it is the obligation of democratic societies to provide citizens with identity authentication measures that are practicable in emergencies as well as in everyday life. -     Can we presume that no citizens trapped in emergencies would ever lose any cards? -     Can we presume that no citizens trapped in emergencies would ever be injured? -     Can we presume that every citizen trapped in emergencies would ever be settled and calm? Click the link for the full text. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/availability-first-approach-hitoshi-kokumai/