I am not smart. I have one PIN that I use for everything I have that needs a PIN: my bank accounts, my phone lock, my private yacht, everything. Sure, you’re supposed to have seperate PINs for each, but who can keep track of all of those? It’s much easier to know that “4459” works on all my stuff.
But for those of us who can’t keep track of all that math, researchers in the UK are working on a new way to secure your portable devices. Using technology similar to fingerprinting or retina scanning, the scienticians have come up with a way to read your doodles. In essence, the way I draw a bunny is different than how you draw a bunny, and that’s actually harder to forge than you might first think.
What’s more is because these “graphical passwords” aren’t alphanumeric, they’re far harder, or even impossible, for machines to hack using brute-force attacks. The more complex your drawing of an airplane is, the more secure your device is.
It’s called Background Draw a Secret, and it could hit smartphones fairly soon with add-on software. We love it.
‘Picture-passwords’ for people who struggle to remember their PIN numbers [Daily Mail]