Academics launch 'phishing' block - Telegraph A number of media organisations, including the Telegraph, have recently been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army through phishing scams, while mass attacks were launched within Iran using a fake Google email shortly before the presidential elections in June. "We have known for a long time that the username and password system is problematic and very insecure, proving a headache for even the largest websites," said Professor Chris Mitchell of Royal Holloway's Information Security Group. LinkedIn was hacked, and over six million stolen user passwords were then posted on a website used by Russian cyber criminals; Facebook admitted in 2011 that 600,000 of its user accounts were being compromised every single day. Despite this, username and password remains the dominant technology, and while large corporations have been able to employ more secure methods, attempts to provide homes with similar protection have been unsuccessful, except in a few cases such as online banking. The hope is that our technology will finally make it possible to provide more sophisticated technology to protect all internet users. Uni-IDM is also expected to offer a solution for people who will need to access the growing number government services going online, such as tax and benefits claims. The system will provide a secure space for these new users, many of whom may have little experience using the internet.