Unbreakable Crypto: Store a 30-character Password In Your Subconscious Mind 287
MrSeb writes "A cross-disciplinary team of US neuroscientists and cryptographers have developed a password/passkey system that removes the weakest link in any security system: the human user. It's ingenious: The system still requires that you enter a password, but at no point do you actually remember the password, meaning it can't be written down and it can't be obtained via coercion or torture — i.e. rubber-hose cryptanalysis. The system, devised by Hristo Bojinov of Stanford University and friends from Northwestern and SRI, relies on implicit learning, a process by which you absorb new information — but you're completely unaware that you've actually learned anything; a bit like learning to ride a bike. The process of learning the password (or cryptographic key) involves the use of a specially crafted computer game that, funnily enough, resembles Guitar Hero. Their experimental results suggest that, after a 45 minute learning session, the 30-letter password is firmly implanted in your subconscious brain. Authentication requires that you play a round of the game — but this time, your 30-letter sequence is interspersed with other random 30-letter sequences. To pass authentication, you must reliably perform better on your sequence. Even after two weeks, it seems you are still able to recall this sequence."
repetitive phrases slightly modified (Score:5, Funny)
Replace 'character' with 'note' and it's clear subjects were tortured with Philip Glass for 80 hours and won't soon forget.
How ingenious (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:5, Funny)
He's not kidding. I just logged onto his /. account and posted this after reading the password he posted.
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:3, Funny)
Only one song stays in my mind day after day... (Score:5, Funny)
and I can never remember exactly how many "na-na-na"s go in between the "hey, hey, hey"s and the "good-bye"s.....
(welcome to MY hell, and you're welcome!)
Re:How ingenious (Score:3, Funny)
...or at least that's how it used to work, something might have been tweaked in the moderation system since that was true.
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:4, Funny)
Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a cosmonaut.
And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you ever knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:2, Funny)
Ain't nobody got time for dat.
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:5, Funny)
Yet another Obligatory XKCD (Score:5, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/851/ [xkcd.com]
Is there a topic for which there *isn't* a XKCD comic?
Re:"Reliably better" (Score:2, Funny)
Your keyspace is pathetically small
What if you're a hipster? The attacker would never have even heard of the song whose lyrics you used, so how could he try its lyrics?