President Obama released the Cybersecurity National Action Plan that will urge citizens to move to multi-factor authentication, replace legacy systems that are difficult to secure and create a Federal Chief Information Officer.

There are many ways to perform two-factor authentication and institutions want to make sure to vary the methods. By definition, with multi-factor authentication you have to present two of more dissimilar factors and typing in a password and then a text PIN is a know-know response basically using the same form of authentication twice.

There is no Internet driver license or passport and identifying individuals online is cumbersome. This could be starting to change though. A number of projects are making real strides to enable individuals to use documents they already have for high-assurance access, in essence using IDs already in the wallet as the DNA for future identity.

Android.Bankosy malware isn’t new. The latest version does have a new twist, though, targeting Android mobile phones and intercepting voice-delivered, one-time passcodes for two-factor authentication.

EveryKey, a device that can enable access to mobile devices, laptops and even a car or home, zoomed to 676% of its crowd funding target on IndieGogo earlier this month. The product also has a recognized name backing it, John McAfee, the guy who founded a wildly successful anti-virus company and is now running for U.S. president as a Libertarian Party candidate. McAfee is now EveryKey chief evangelist and talked with Re:ID’s Gina Jordan about the system.

Finland taps Gemalto for ePassports and announces certification of Quebec facility; ASSA ABLOY Hospitality Mobile Access has been implemented on more than 100,000 guest rooms worldwide; The FIDO Alliance announced that more than 100 solutions are now FIDO Certified; Swivel Secure, a provider of adaptive multi-factor authentication, announced the launch of Swivel Cloud.

The death of the password has been a long time coming but sadly the authentication mechanism lingers like the smell of weeks old Chinese food forgotten in the back of the refrigerator. Forrester Research is releasing a series of reports that will help security and risk professionals to compare employee password policies against a range of other organizations and assess emerging trends that enterprises are considering to reduce the cost of managing passwords.

Even with people continually being told they shouldn’t use weak passwords it’s still happening, according to SplashData and the 2015 edition of its annual “Worst Passwords List.” The news, however, isn’t entirely bad. In the fifth annual report, compiled from more than 2 million leaked passwords during the year, some new and longer passwords made their debut, which may be a sign that websites and consumers are attempting to be more secure.

The Internet of Things has a lot of promise, connected cars that can turn on the lights and unlock the front door and smart refrigerators that display the family calendar, suggest recipes and send images to a smartphone showing what food is in the fridge are all existing developments. But as promising as this is, when your smart home is under attack by unknown forces, the IoT takes on a much darker hue. Digital security and privacy issues are a serious concern as the growing incidence of hacks and data breaches expose the vulnerabilities of IoT.

When we think about innovative industries, traditional financial institutions may not be front of mind. Instead the industry has developed a public reputation for stability and consistency. Yet many banks have been showing a different attitude when it comes to security.