The November cover story for WIRED is Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can't Protect Us Anymore. It's an interesting read but doesn't really offer any solutions to the problem. Enter: LaunchKey -a Startup Weekend undertaking aimed at replacing the notion of needing a password at all in trade for authentication via your smart device (whatever that may be). Their intro video very plainly describes the problem and their solution.

Broadly, I love the idea. Passwords are forgotten and databases are hackable. Implementing this would require a pretty massive technical upgrade from a lot of the Internet but may be worth it. It would also mean that losing your phone would be more dangerous but that's a trend that's coming our way regardless.

I'm sure there are pitfalls with this concept but it's one I'm curious to hear more about.