If we were building the Net from the ground up knowing what we know today, authentication might have figured into the core in a way absent today.

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On Facebook, for example, two-factor authentication is triggered when users try to log in in an unexpected way, such as from a computer in a different country.

BBC: Technology

Authentication has been embraced by many players in the TV industry as a way to head off the possibility that consumers could begin dropping their cable and satellite TV subscriptions in favor of lower-cost online video services, such as Netflix Inc.

WSJ: ESPN Launches App for Mobile-TV Devices