That could be your next passcode thanks to a British firm that has just unveiled a new security system that replaces the traditional four-digit personal identification number (PIN) with a sequence of symbols.
Intelligent Environments claims its “emoji security technology” is easier to remember, offers greater security and, crucially, is a lot more fun than numbers.
The company’s research revealed that one-third of the 1,300 people polled have forgotten their PINs before, and “64% of millennials regularly communicate only using emoji.” Putting the two together seemed the logical conclusion.
Offering 44 emoji to choose from generates 3,498,308 permutations, as opposed to 7,290 non-repeating digits, making emoji passcodes 480 times more secure.
“Forgetting passwords is because the brain doesn’t work digitally or verbally. It works imagistically,” self-professed memory expert Tony Buzan says. “Images are the prime way of remembering anything you want to remember.”
The people behind the new technology recommend building a story to help you remember the sequence. For example, use an imaginary day that begins with a baby’s cry, continues with a cycle to work, takes in an apple at lunch and finishes with a beer: baby, bike, apple, beer. The company is currently in talks with banks to roll out the technology over the next 12 months.
Cybersecurity expert Professor Alan Woodward has praised the system, saying the technology would force hackers to run through a greater number of cycles to break the code. However, he added that “it still makes sense to have some sort of two-factor authentication.”
–
Source: Mashable.com