US president-elect Donald Trump should force the use of stronger authentication systems for US federal system logins, a national cyber-security commission has said.The NIST-backed Commission On Enhancing National Cybersecurity stated in a report published last week that stronger authentication was nessecary.https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016/12/02/cybersecurity-commission-report-final-post.pdf”The next Administration should launch a national public-private initiative to achieve major security and privacy improvements by increasing the use of strong authentication to improve identity management”, reads the report.”An effective identity management system is foundational to managing privacy interests and relates directly to security”.The 12-person commission includes a former IBM CEO, the current CEO of MasterCard, the vice-president of Microsoft Research, the chief security officer of Uber and other security experts.”An ambitious but important goal for the next administration should be to see no major breaches by 2021 in which identity-especially the use of passwords-is the primary vector of attack,” the report urges.”A review of the major breaches over the past six years reveals that compromised identity characteristics have consistently been the main point of entry,” the report notes.”We are making it far too easy for malicious actors to steal identities or impersonate someone online.”The body also recommends that the new president should issue a National Cybersecurity Strategy within the first 180 days of his administration.Brett McDowell, executive director of the FIDO Alliance has welcomed the report:”As the Commission's report makes clear, improving the reliability of online identity infrastructure is an essential component of improving cybersecurity, and starts with moving beyond passwords to innovative technologies like FIDO authentication. Through continued partnership between industry and government – and by following the Commission's recommendations around identity and authentication – I am confident the new U.S. administration, with the help of global consortia like the FIDO Alliance, can make meaningful progress toward that five-year goal of eliminating identity-related data breaches.”

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