Moving Past the Password

Some techno-geeks who live in an alternative, digital cloud-world of bytes, ones, zeros and algorithms say that our online passwords are not too effective against a determined hacker.

People used to hide their money under the mattress.

But then they figured out that the mattress was one of the first places that burglars look for cash. So they decided to put their money in an old sock in the bottom of the sock drawer ... in a watertight plastic bottle in the tank on the back of the toilet ... in an envelope taped to the bottom of the cat's litter box ... inside a big coffee cup in the back of a cupboard ... or in an envelope inside a DVD case.

Very clever. But not completely secure. You don't want to come home and find that your spouse has given away your copy of the movie The Color of Money. You know, the Paul Newman, Tom Cruise film. The one that is filled with your money!

Fearing such losses, most people choose to put their money in bank accounts that can be accessed online with the use of passwords. They come up with a simple string of characters -- somewhere between six and 16 -- and figure that their money will remain safe.

Well, maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. It...