[Auth]USB key fob?

[Scott]

just a thought, as a way to carry your personal data around how about a 
USB key fob(I think Dell make them). they hold (I think) about 8 megs of 
data.
(is fob the right word?)
it's a small device designed to go on your keyring, and while at first 
it might seem dumb to use in hardware like this, but does anyone on this 
list not have a keyring already for their house or car that they carry 
with them almost always?

I sit at any PC (do 90% of us already have a USB port?) and insert my 
key fob when I want to go use a website, the browser plugin asks for a 
password to unlock my encryted data on the key ring, and POOF portable 
encrypted personal data that stays with my keychain(which stays with me 
if I go anywhere) without the benifit of a Service provider holding my 
data.  I could use my ISP's website folder to keep a backup of my keyfob 
so if I'm in a renmote location without my key(or I loose/damage my key) 
I can refresh it remotely unlocking it with a few passwords.  Also, if 
my key is lost, to someone else it would be no good wihtout my password 
to unlock it.


to do this without websites having to recode their pages, the browser 
plugin can allow me to right click on a field in a website order form 
and select from a menu which data to insert in that field from my 
keyfob.  An ecommerce tool could be made available so websites could 
offer a link on the page to "use my GNUKey" which would be able to 
automatically understand what data goes where and which account I use 
for this type of purchase where my default shipping address is etc...

XML is ideal for a way to store the data because it all we have to do is 
declare a DTD of GNUKey and we can easily create an XMLGNUKey subset 
which holds all the data types we want.(and then of course encrypt it) 
the GNUKey could be an executable which only runs with the right 
password and creates something like an IPtunnel to the browser plugin so 
other apps would have a hard time spying on the data.

From an end user perspective, it'd be reasuring to know that I hold my 
personal data in my pocket, and like any onther key if lost you'd 
"change the locks" so to speak..

to look at how this browser plugin would function, we should examine how 
it's done with other apps and take the good ideas, a few that I can 
think of are one called "Gator" that fills in passwords for you on 
websites, and Mozilla has a "stored data" feature that does this already.

going further, we could then create a Virtual GNUKey that would allow 
the same function by storing the data on a remote server for those that 
don't want to use the key fob, and server as a backup medium, or a way 
to hold data beyond that initial 8 MB.  (like a photo album, or music 
collection).

this could be used to unlock services that have nothin to do with 
Hailstorm or DotGNU like the folks over at Idrive (a remote storage 
service)or a web base email account that just needs a userID and 
password at a given URL.

what do you folks think about this scheme?