Now that USB thumb drives are so cheap, I wondered if they could be useful for authentication. My idea is that the user would log on with a simple password, then the USB device would be "read" and contain a more complex password and other required information regarding shares etc. I am not looking for banking security, this would be for colleges schools etc. The data on the USB stick could be encrypted. In a large school, for instance, the users details would be kept on the stick.
Wonder what others think, a fair bit of info would fit on a cheap stick, This would solve the problem of people having to remember complex passwords and having to change their passwords. The password could be changed automagically. Thanks for reading; Jimmy.