The move beyond passwords to better authentication is on the horizon. There are a number of forces at work propelling the change beyond passwords. Historically when it came to practical implementation of “better” authentication, the ease-of-use and operational costs of alternatives became major stumbling blocks except in high-value environments but the industry is close to moving beyond that problem.

EU payment providers need to provide consumers with two-factor authentication for access to banks account by the end of summer.

Computer users are not using stronger passwords, according to the annual list of the 25 worst passwords from SplashData. In the fourth annual report, compiled from more than 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year, “123456” and “password” continue to hold the top two spots that they have held each year since the first list in 2011. Other passwords in the top 10 include “qwerty,” “dragon,” and “football.”

Data breaches seem to be an almost everyday occurrence with no institution immune. But these breaches are waking up many enterprises and having them tighten access controls and shore up their overall security posture.

CA Technologies posits that security and authentication will be more important to enterprises this year and will have higher visibility from executives because of data breaches in the past.

Facebook is in the lead with 43% of consumers who use federated logins choosing the social network but Google is closing with 40%, according to research from Janrain. The two largest players in this space will continue to duke it out in 2015 as both are also expected to make some significant changes to their federated identities.

Intel Security announced the limited release this week of True Key – a cross-platform consumer application designed to take the frustration out of remembering passwords.

The four levels of assurance are oft cited as guidelines for how much an identity can be trusted. But they are also oft criticized as being too rigid and not accommodating to to all markets. How is the government and others viewing these levels and how might they change in the future?

2014: the year of password breaches, Internet of Things and biometric handsets. True, some of these started earlier, but this year saw these technologies blossom and breaches widen. These are three separate things right now, but they lead up to one thing: the mobile handset as an identifier.

The proliferation of connected devices and the Internet of Things for identity presents challenges and threats, but if we are successful, it also presents a grand scale of opportunities. Networked devices and sensors make up the fabric of the Internet of Things (IoT) and leveraging mobile devices, sensors, and wearables is key to the future of identity and personal data. As the IoT becomes pervasive, Kantara Initiative is focusing to discover strategic issues present at the intersection of identity, IoT and usability.