On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Kent Borg <kentb...@borg.org> wrote:
> On 11/21/2017 11:27 AM, Daniel Barrett wrote: > >> Anyone here bank at Fidelity? > > Fido is not (yet) a bank. They perform some bank like functions but are regulated by SEC not FRB and accounts are insured accordingly. But I kept my Employee account when they laid me off because having been inside, I think they're less rigged against the investor than the rest of wallstreet. (I still would recommend using mostly low-fee mutual funds not the premium fee ones.) > They are touting a new security feature >> called "MyVoice" that opens up telephone access to your accounts >> without a password. It uses voice recognition to verify your identity. >> >> https://www.fidelity.com/security/fidelity-myvoice/overview >> >> I declined the feature. Fingerprinting a voice uniquely over a >> low-quality telephone line? I can't imagine that's more secure than a >> non-obvious password. What does the security crowd here think? >> > > Terrible idea. > They need to match convenience with eTrade/Schwab/... to attract/retain certain demographics. It's better than '1234' or 'Password1' for _that_ crowd, but I won't be using it. And would not expect anyone looking at this thread to either. First question: How secure is it? I am skeptical. Did you see the story > about the 10-year old whose face was similar enough to what the neural nets > concluded his parents look like, that he could unlock either of their Apple > phones? Be skeptical. > yeah, I would think it was interesting as a 2FA extra layer but not as in-lieu-of all other authentication. > Second question: The idea seems to make access more convenient. But do I WANT my retirement savings to be so convenient? Security through cumbersomeness is real and has value. Safe deposit boxes are cumbersome to access, too: and that is a feature. Agreed. Risk analysis is based on both ease to attack and value. If one is day-trading with massive leverage, and need to be able to sell NOW whilst walkabout to avoid massive losses, the convenience may be worth it. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss