SCO0107 - Single Sign On with OpenID

Filed in: Web Applications | Security
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Imagine being able to sign on to hundreds if not thousands of websites with a single username and password. Usually, this would be frowned upon as it could be a highly risky strategy with most standard websites. But there is a safe, secure and free solution to the holy grail of single sign on and thats OpenID OpenID .

Wikipedia describes OpenID as " ... a decentralized single sign-on system. Using OpenID-enabled sites, web users do not need to remember traditional authentication tokens such as username and password. Instead, they only need to be previously registered on a website with an OpenID "identity provider", sometimes called an i-broker. Since OpenID is decentralized, any website can employ OpenID software as a way for users to sign in; OpenID solves the problem without relying on any centralized website to confirm digital identity.
OpenID is increasingly gaining adoption among large sites, with organizations like AOL acting as a provider. In addition, integrated OpenID support has been made a high priority in Firefox 3 and Microsoft is working on implementing OpenID 2.0 in Windows Vista."

Don't worry, it's really easy to use as can be seen from this week's show!

I'll take you through signing up for a free OpenID identity and demonstrate just how easy it is to use various OpenID enabled sites!

Some useful links as mentioned in the show:

A simple explanation of how OpenID works
A List of OpenID Indentity Providers
The Nitty Gritty!
JanRain Website
MyOpenID Website

Discussions: Forum

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