TREZOR Remains one of the most popular hardware Bitcoin wallet solutions in existence today. SatoshiLabs – the company responsible for creating this hardware wallet – is providing customers with regular upgrades and updates. The latest firmware update for the TREZOR sees the launch of a unique feature to the table, called TREZOR Connect.
TREZOR Connect – Secure Authentication Without Password
Security is an element in our daily lives that is often overlooked, as most people would gladly trade additional security for convenience and ease-of-use. When it comes to your financial wealth, however, it is advisable that security measures are taken more seriously, as you can lose money without the proper countermeasures in place.
Especially when it comes to conducting business online- or, in this case, with Bitcoin – there aren’t too many security options available at this time. Two-factor authentication is one feature, but it’s from sufficient. And providing just a password – even with numbers, digits, and symbols – is still rather easy to crack, albeit not as easy as it used to be.
But what if we could authenticate in such a way without ever having to use a password or any of the existing security solutions? The TREZOR team has thought long and hard about this problem, and they have come up with a solution that lets you authenticate securely without needing to provide a password.
TREZOR Connect will work similarly to how you can use your social media or Gmail account to access an online service. But there is a twist, as the current measures in place when using these types of account to authenticate a user are far from secure, as they display how ease-of-use often triumphs over security.
In order to use the TREZOR Connect function, a user will be required to confirm an action on his/her TREZOR hardware Bitcoin wallet. On your device’s display, you will see an HTTP Login authentication request, which you can either cancel or confirm by using the respective buttons on your TREZOR device.
Confirming the authentication will return the login structure described on this page in order to check whether this “signature” matches the contents of the public key / address used to authenticate. Assuming this is the key, your user account will be created – if you are signing up for a new service – or simply log you into your account [if you are an existing user].
More information regarding the TREZOR Connect function will be posted on the SatoshiLabs blog in the near future.
Additional Security Measure For TREZOR Owners
This new TREZOR firmware upgrade is not just about the TREZOR Connect feature, as other improvements have been made as well. First of all, TREZOR-compatible applications will work slightly different from what you may be used to, as you will need to enter your PIN every time you plug in the device.
Once done so, your account balances and history will be loaded as usual. This measure was put in place to guarantee there is no unauthorized access of sensitive data while also protecting your privacy at the same time. Leaving your TREZOR unattended should never take place anyway, but even if it were to happen, you would be protected after this firmware update.
TREZOR’s open source code has received an update as well – thanks to Nicolas Bacca and Jochen Hoenicke. Furthermore, the transaction signing code has been optimized even further, which is something all TREZOR users will greatly appreciate. By optimizing the code, the entire process is up to four times faster and more resistant against timing attacks.
Source: http://satoshilabs.com/news/2015-04-07-trezor-firmware-1-3-3-connect-api/