Is security a thing of the past in a Web 2.0 world

I like what SXIP is doing to address security in a Web 2.0 world but, unless I am mistaken, their approach is focused around making life simpler for enterprises as they adopt SOA solutions. SXIP makes it easy to integrate internal access management and authentication with providers of external components, modules or applications. This is a step in the right direction and I applaud them for it. But what is being done for the consumer? The consumer is in the vanguard of the Web 2.0 revolution. We are moving our data on line - our pictures, our data, our schedules, our email. We are collaborating using on line applications. This leads us to the situation where we have accounts with user names and passwords on multiple web sites and there is no easy way to keep the security information in sync. As a result the temptation is to use a common password across all sites, or we use the password management features of the browser on our default desktop or laptop - but what happens when we travel? I believe that there is an opportunity for a consumer oriented, federated authentication service. At present each web service implements its own security scheme and the fragmentation makes life excessively complicated for the consumer. It also imposes a burden on every web application developer in delivering an access management framework. We need to implement a range of tools that increase the confidence of consumers that their information is adequately secured without excessively intrusive password controls.