Using OpenID to access online accounts

Using your OpenID
The easiest way to check if a site uses OpenID is to look for the OpenID logo on its login or sign-up page. For example, you can use OpenID to sign in when leaving comments on blogs on Blogger.com.

You can find lists of sites that use OpenID at openid.net and myopenid.com.

Sometimes the OpenID logo will not appear until you try to log in. As an example we went to widedivots.com with our OpenID and clicked on Sign In. There is a link to log in with OpenID underneath the standard log in text boxes.

Click on that and then enter the OpenID URL given to you. For Yahoo accounts visit Yahoo.com; the website will redirect you to the Yahoo website to confirm your identity.

Disadvantages
The obvious disadvantage of the OpenID is that if someone gets hold of the password, they can access your accounts on all of the websites that support OpenID.

But this isn’t really a problem with OpenID itself because it is true of all similar services. Like any other password an OpenID password should be hard to guess.

The other risk is when a website asks for your password as well as the OpenID Identity URL.

This could mean the site is trying to access your account. While we agree that OpenID is not good enough for online banking, it is certainly good enough for other websites that require an account but don’t store private data.

Several OpenID services now use an image like the Yahoo Sign in Seal to help prevent phishing attacks. If the image is wrong or missing, you shouldn’t proceed.

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