Picture Passwords More Secure than Text 261
Hugh Pickens writes "People possess a remarkable ability for recalling pictures and researchers at Newcastle University are exploiting this characteristic to create graphical passwords that they say are a thousand times more secure than ordinary textual passwords. With Draw a Secret (DAS) technology, users draw an image over a background, which is then encoded as an ordered sequence of cells. The software recalls the strokes, along with the number of times the pen is lifted. If a person chooses a flower background and then draws a butterfly as their secret password image onto it, they have to remember where they began on the grid and the order of their pen strokes. The "passpicture" is recognized as identical if the encoding is the same, not the drawing itself, which allows for some margin of error as the drawing does not have to be re-created exactly. The software has been initially designed for handheld devices such as iPhones, Blackberry and Smartphone, but could soon be expanded to other areas. "The most exciting feature is that a simple enhancement simultaneously provides significantly enhanced usability and security," says computer scientist Jeff Yan."
I've heard this before (Score:5, Funny)
Why am I having nightmares... (Score:3, Funny)
That would be one way to keep things secure though - it's hard for someone to guess your pass picture if they can't bring themselves to look at the background...
Re:And "shoulder surfing". (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, wait.
As nice as this sounds... (Score:5, Funny)
New password == old password? (Score:5, Funny)
8==D
Who'd have guessed you could use the same password in both systems?
DDR Passwords (Score:5, Funny)
Patent pending, patent pending, patent pending.
Re:New password == old password? (Score:5, Funny)
And that's from the graphical login system!
Re:And "shoulder surfing". (Score:5, Funny)
Now if only I could figure out how to paste that troll's ascii in here...
Re:And "shoulder surfing". (Score:4, Funny)
I call bullshit (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Damnable Security! (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine pictures of common passwords/objects being drawn everywhere on the screen at different rotations and scales in rapid succession.. or just a brute forcer which didn't even make legible images 99% of the time
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Funny)
You're doing it wrong.
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Funny)
password expired (Score:2, Funny)
That might be a good idea until you get one of these messages.
Password expired, please change your name.
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Funny)
Now my 2 cents, I just design security systems that are so freaky and confusing that hackers just give up because it's too odd. The hacker or otherwise bad person just gives up and is like "wtf is it, broke or just haunted?" If someone made a software suite where you can design your own ridiculous security system with basically unlimited possibilities of whatever the user can dream up, people would have some pretty ridiculous security! Everyone here always complains about security through obscurity. You try opening a ridiculously large-bit-encryption archive file of mine when at the "enter the password" screen, you have to wave the cursor over the password field then type submit in it and click the exit button which reveals a crossword puzzle with only one valid word in it but you have to in fact click the squares so the highlighted letters form a smiley face then within 3 seconds, click on the password field then press tab three times which is the only wat to get you to the now unlocked, real invisible password entry box and type your password in stutter type (doubles of each letter followed by a backspace) and then press the red X in the top right to submit it and open the archive. You aren't getting into that archive! That's so screwy, someone would give up trying to figure out what the hell was going on in minutes. And good luck brute forcing it cuz that'll take all the computers on earth a couple hundred trillion years. Plus it's not that hard of a process to remember when you really think about it. It'd take someone who memorized it like 15 seconds tops to do it all and even if someone watched it, they'd have trouble remembering it or understanding it. They'd have to have a camera recording your keyboard and mouse synchronized with another camera watching the screen and also be able to guess the time requirements. Do all that with an incrementing password (like fishfish2 then next time it's fishfish3) at the end of it and they'd barely be able to solve it if you told them every step. Waaaaaaay better and more secure than drawing a picture on a low res grid.
Please.. dear GOD no! (Score:2, Funny)
User "I have forgotten my password"
admin "let me just reset it for you, the default password is a square with a star inside started at grid co-ordinates 0,3 going to 0,10 then down to 10,10... Don't forget to lift your pen at each courner"
Just kill me now please.
minimum requirements (Score:5, Funny)
Password too simple. Password must be at least 8 strokes with at least one diagonal one and one wiggly one.
Re:Easier in Asia... (Score:2, Funny)
Missing option (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Meh. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Easier in Asia... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And "shoulder surfing". (Score:4, Funny)
Massive Cocks (Score:4, Funny)
Stacey: Try drawing a massive cock..
Arnie: I'm in. Lets get to work
Re:Hear hear (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Easier in Asia... (Score:2, Funny)