1.1 million reports of identity theft last year—and the cure might be worse than the disease. The irony is delicious: we’ve built so many layers of security that users are now begging hackers to take their data just to avoid another damn 2FA prompt. 40% of businesses admit they can’t balance security with usability, which is corporate speak for “we either lock users out or let fraudsters in.”
The Authentication Circus 🤹
MFA, SSO, FIDO—alphabet soup that’s supposed to save us. Instead, we’re drowning in “tap this notification,” “enter the code from your authenticator,” “solve this CAPTCHA while standing on one foot.” The result? Users either:
- Reuse passwords (because who has 87 unique ones?)
- Disable security features (out of sheer spite)
- Abandon signups entirely (the digital equivalent of flipping the table)
AI to the Rescue… Or Just More Hype? 🤖
The article hints at AI smoothing out the friction—predictive auth, behavioral biometrics, blah blah. But let’s be real: if AI were so great at this, we wouldn’t still be typing in SMS codes like it’s 2010. The real solution isn’t more tech—it’s designing systems that don’t treat users like suspects in their own accounts. Until then, enjoy your 17th password reset this month. Cheers.