When Context Is Better Than Identity (Transcript of Discussion)

Abstract

My talk today is when context is better than identity. Imagine we are making a cash payment to a small shop, we do not care who is standing in that shop, or we do not know the name of the small shop, it is the location and the environment, or the condition that we have already received the goods makes us believe that the risks of making this payment is very low. When you have made payment to this small shop, it gives you assurance that you have paid the correct instance of that shop. So we know that when authenticating the small shop it is frequently the best to run a test of the context. And when authenticating the customer or the payer, for example, when you are using your credit card, the current payment infrastructure allows this to be done very easily, and in this case, the shop acts as a proxy for the banks.