British technology firm Intelligent Environments has created a system that will allow users to have pictographs as their passcodes.
Your traditional four-digit bank PIN, with the help of IE’s software, could instead use a set of 44 different emojis. The company claims their system is mathematically more secure because there are 480 times more combinations possible than a 10-digit system would allow. (The exact numbers: 3,498,308 combinations of non-repeating emojis, compared to 7,290 possible combinations of non-repeating numbers.)
It should surprise no one that most people these days have emoticons on their phones, use them to text frequently, and can remember “Dragon-Poop-Kanagawa Wave-Heart Eyes” more easily than their grandmother’s birthday. It’s probably not cool for me to admit my PIN number has been the same since I was 15. To the hackers who figure it out: You’re welcome to that $12 in my checking account.
Intelligent Environments found that more than a third of Britons have forgotten their PIN at one time. They had “memory expert” Tony Buzan, inventor of the “Mind Map” technique, back up their claims that the pictogram method is way easier:
“The Emoji Passcode plays to humans’ extraordinary ability to remember pictures, which is anchored in our evolutionary history. Forgetting passwords is because the brain doesn’t work digitally or verbally. It works imagistically. Images are the prime way of remembering anything you want to remember.”
Sian John at Symantec is not convinced the emoji system can cut down on the hackers who figure out your birthday or familiar number patterns to crack in to your bank account.
“…picture-based arrangements could be cracked by anyone who knows which emojis someone uses most frequently, and therefore are likely to choose for their passcode. A strong(er) form of verification such as Two Factor Authentication, which provides unambiguous identification of users via the combination of two different components, will still be required to protect sensitive information such as banking logins.”
So far no banks have implemented the system, but Intelligent Environments is in talks with several UK financial institutions about adding this as another safety measure to the ones already in place. I can’t decide if I’d rather switch to the emoji system or stick with the current system of my bank showing me photos of puppies and giraffes and asking me “IS THIS YOUR PHOTO?” like a drunk street magician.
(Via CNBC)