The following compilation is a digest of five of the ten technologies highlighted by the MIT Technology Review. These traverse medicine, protein engineering, energy storage and new alternative to computer passwords. The December issue will host the remaining five. In the early 1960s, MIT professor Fernando Corbato was developing a new kind of shared computer system and wanted a way for people to be able to protect their private files. His solution was a password. Over the years, Corbato's fix won out over other means of authentication and became the standard way we log on to almost everything, everywhere. Passwords provide the first line of defence against unauthorised access to important data on numerous technological devices. But passwords are inherently insecure. Not all have been able to successfully protect their sensitive information, leaving a massive problem for businesses of all sizes, which could lead to the end of passwords.
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