The Seven Young Goats and multifactor authentication

[harlan4096]

Our ancestors may not have had computers, but they certainly knew a thing or two about keeping children safe. We’ve already used Little Red Riding Hood as a guide to explaining Man-in-the-Middle attacks, handshakes, and phishing. Now let’s talk about two-factor authentication (2FA) and biometric security. This time, we’ll use a somewhat less-known fairy tale called The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats.

The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats

Now, cybercriminals don’t tend to eat their victims, so we’re interested in the first part, where the wolf is trying to get into the goats’ house. Let’s take a step-by-step look at what’s really going on here.

1. The mother goat goes into the forest after warning her kids not to open the door to strangers.

2. The wolf approaches the house, says he is the mother goat, and asks to be let in. The young goats immediately notice the wolf doesn’t sound like their mother, and so they don’t open the door.

The concept of authentication is clearly illustrated in the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats. For those unfamiliar with the tale, it involves a family of goats consisting of a mother and seven youngsters. When the mother leaves to get food, she tells her children not to let in the wolf (who will eat them) and teaches them to recognize the differences in their voices and fur color. She leaves and the wolf knocks on their door. Learning from the children that his voice is too low, he alters it to trick them into thinking he’s their mother. The young goats remember, then, to look under the door and see the wolf’s dark, furry feet. Again, they refuse him entry. The wolf then disguises his feet, dusting them with flour to make them look white, like the mother goat’s. Ultimately, the young goats are convinced (and eaten).
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