Distorted graphics make the screen Lock password more secure

To protect users' financial information and personal privacy, many mobile phones require users to enter their personal identification code, biometric information, or four passwords before using their mobile phones. But is this method really useful when there are a lot of noise? "This is not necessarily," said a group of researchers from the University of Regus, New Jersey, the Institute of Information Science at the planimium, the University of Sal, Germany, and the University of Helsinki in Finland.

According to a consumer report published in March, 3.1 million smartphones were stolen in the United States last year alone. Most of the mobile phones do not use password protection, and only 1/3 of the users surveyed have set four passwords. The researchers also said that even password-protected mobile phones were "launched". In a crowded environment, those with ulterior motives would often be in crowded places, secretly peat the victim's side, and immediately start after the victim uses the unlock password.

In addition to the PIN code and the four-digit password, researchers are exploring whether touch screen plotting can be used to replace the former. They call this technology a "gesture password ". Using this technology, the password set on the user's touch screen can be a straight line, a curve, or other figure. The device converts the password to a value. Next time, you only need to re-draw the set image to open the device. Generally, the value after the image is converted must be as close as possible to the preset value.

As one of the leaders of the project, Janne Lindqvist, an associate professor of power and computer engineering at the Engineering Institute of the University of Regus, said, "You can repeat the gesture password you set yourself, but it must be extremely difficult for others, because each person's hand features, the above muscles and joints are different." Then, the program called the recognizer determines that the gesture belongs to a specific user.

In the study, the investigator asked the participants to draw a pattern and then asked them to repeat it once, and then re-paint it again ten days later. It is true that it is almost impossible to accurately draw the patterns drawn for the first time, and the software will also recognize those "extremely similar" images. However, the image must have many similarities before it can be recognized. This degree depends on the user's security requirements.

According to the findings of the International Conference on mobile systems (MobiSys), held in New York, USA in June 18, 2014, the researchers concluded that security gestures are inherently complex and easy to operate. The "gesture password" can have both of these two features because users can easily remember and copy them, but thieves cannot copy them.

This novel idea is still in the R & D stage, but may not be implemented in the next generation of Apple mobile phones. However, researchers believe that this personalized Gesture Recognition security mechanism has brought some interesting results.

Unlike the password of a text number, a longer or more complex gesture pattern may not be safer than a shorter or simpler one.

The safest gesture pattern is typically characterized by many turns, just like letters in the signature.

Relatively insecure gesture patterns usually have very few turns. In addition, these turns will be relaxed, and the angle of the turns is similar, such as a circle.

In general, it is a little difficult for participants to draw the gesture password they designed again. When they use a few fingers to create passwords and then re-paint them, they make many mistakes. (Author: Larry Greenemeier)