With all the attempts for killing the password over the past years, the question remains: Will it ever happen? Passwords and other weak means of authentication such as PIN numbers are still the by far most widely used way to authenticate. On the other hand, we observe an uptake for strong(er) authentication, be it the built-in biometrics in mobile devices, be it cloud-based MFA, or be it easy-to-use and rather cheap tokens. Thus, the question is: Are we already reaching the "break-even" for strong authentication, the point where strong authentication finally starts displacing passwords as the main way for authentication? If not, when will we reach that point, if ever? What does it need for doing so? Is it having cheaper, easier-to-use, more flexible authenticators? Is it thinking authentication from the customer, making it adaptive to all devices and use cases, instead of dictating a certain means of strong authentication? Who will be the providers that benefit? Will it be the technology suppliers to banks, mobile phone manufacturers, or governments? Will it be independent sellers of strong authentication tokens? Will it be cloud-based services?
There are many open questions – the experts in the panel will provide their view on this already "classical" topic. Maybe we are finally approaching the "password dawn".
