Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder1.news.weretis.net!news.swapon.de!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "tdk" Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Geographical passwords could solve the password catch-22 Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 09:25:40 +0925 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 21 Message-ID: <4490-0@usenet.squte.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Injection-Info: mx05.eternal-september.org; posting-host="1858be7b02c727ad8c4c4755e1110c21"; logging-data="25619"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/kd3+PCCn01ni+Umh8hzoIcHkEwq+Netc=" In-Reply-To: <4490-0@usenet.squte.com> X-Newsreader: http://squte.com Cancel-Lock: sha1:RnT7OrC1h67zAkhbX5pT1DMY26c= Xref: csiph.com comp.misc:489 Geographical passwords could solve the password catch-22, says a security researcher. Computer scientist Ziyad Al-Salloum of ZSS-Research, writing in the International Journal of Security and Networks, claims it's easier to remember places than numbers or words. The system asks users to draw a boundary round a favourite place which is then hashed. According to Al-Salloum "Proposing an effective replacement of conventional passwords could reduce 76% of data breaches, based on an analysis of more than 47,000 reported security incidents," he explains that a whole-earth map might have 360 billion tiles at 20 degrees of "zoom," making geographical passwords essentially unguessable. [1] "http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/02/16/geographical.passwords.worth.their.salt" [2] "http://xkcd.com/936/" P.S. I assume there's some overlap between readers of this group, soylentnews and Slashdot, so I'm going to try to avoid posting stories already covered on those sites. -- View this thread at http://squte.com/node/4490