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History of Access
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The causal chain, 1961 to now: a room divider becomes a file, the file leaks, the network multiplies the doors; one branch works on proving the person, the other on managing the access; they converge where identity is the perimeter and the machines log in themselves. Hover or focus a node for its story.
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
proving the person
− 6 more
managing the access
− 3 more
The room divider
1961
start here
The file gets printed
1962
Hashing and salt
1979
The doors multiply
1985
Something you have
1986
The worm guesses passwords
1988
Cracking industrializes
1991
The rules era
2003
32 million passwords, plaintext
2009
The token factory is breached
2011
The code moves into the phone
2011
The unphishable key
2014
NIST takes it back
2017
The browser learns the trick
2019
Passkeys: the screen goes away
2022
Kerberos: tickets, not secrets
1988
The tunnel to the castle
1996
The keys to the kingdom get a vault
1999
The directory era
2000
Trust crosses the company line
2005
'Never trust, always verify'
2010
Delegation gets a standard
2012
Login becomes a protocol
2014
Google deletes the moat
2014
The machines get identities
2017
Identity is the perimeter
2024