Information Addicts

Imagine logging on to your iPhone, PDA or even your computer using an image instead of a password.
Scientists at Newcastle Upon Tyne University in the UK have come up with an idea to use pictures instead of text passwords to logon to handheld devices such as Pocket PCs, iPhones and Blackberrys.
Passwords are such a common place in today’s society and most people create one that is as simple as possible to remember making it very easy for hackers to crack or guess.
Most people tend to use their partners or pets names or even their first name followed by a number.
Which takes me to the question, how secure is your computer, online banking or other passwords? Not very secure I bet.
Scientists claim that picture passwords are a thousand times more secure than textual passwords and found that 95% of the people who participated in the research were able to recreate the same image that they drew a week later.
How does it work?
By using a technology called Draw a Secret (DAS), basically if a user chooses a flower for their background and then draw a butterfly as their secret password the software then encodes it as an ordered sequence of cells. The software recalls the strokes, along with the number of times the pen is lifted.
The idea is the human mind has a much greater capacity for remembering images, as we tend to forget character and number passwords just when we are about to logon, and it’s certainly true that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Just think one day you might actually enjoy logging on to your computer, mobile device or a cash machine. I still like the idea that your pupil or eye could one day be used instead of a password.
For more info please click on the link.

So, would you like to use pictures instead or a textual password?

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 9:41 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.