Passwords may have protected personal computers since the early days of PCs, but their time may finally be ending. From hardware tokens to facial recognition, endpoint protection is evolving rapidly. Security-conscious organizations are complementing passwords with an extra layer of technology by combining something you know (your password) with something you have. An example of this underlying concept, known as two-factor authentication, is the use of a private digital certificate that the endpoint must see before it unlocks. Users put digital certificates on devices such as thumb drives that plug directly into a USB port, or on smart cards that communicate with a separate hardware reader.