Graffiti as Password - Secure and Memorable

Al writes "A group from Newcastle University has released work that significantly improves the Draw-A-Secret method of creating passwords. The basic concept behind Draw-a-Secret is that humans excel at image recognition and memory, so 'passwords' should be designed to leverage that ability. The people behind the new work have refined the technique by parsing the shapes with a flexible grid and using existing images as a background to reinforce memory of the password. Imagine having your password be a graffiti-laden alteration of your favorite politicians campaign photo..."

Comments

Myspace crackers would love this

[antifoidulus]

odds are the password of a 14 year old boy would be a spacegun, so that pretty much gives you control of half the accounts on there :P

Re:Myspace crackers would love this

[tweak13]

odds are the password of a 14 year old boy would be a spacegun Is that what the 14 year old kids are calling it these days?

Get off my lawn!

[exploder]

Man, I'm tired of all these complicated new password schemes...my bank uses "security code", a "password", and an image, plus they ask you personal questions that half of us don't even have a definite answer to, such as, "what was your favorite candy as a child" or "what's your favorite vacation spot?" Even if I do remember the answer, I have to remember whether I capitalized, and exactly how I typed it. What a pain in the ass. I get locked out of my bank all the time.

God dammit, just let me pick a nice strong password. I can remember passwords.

Enforcement Policy

[LiquidCoooled]

You must change your graffiti drawing every 7 days and ensure you do not use the same sequence of circles squiggles strokes or triangles.
Your graffiti sketch also must be greater than a house and a tree in complexity and has to include accurate birds and sunshine bars.

Not as secure, IMO

[rustalot42684]

What happens when the person next to you looks and sees what you're drawing? The advantage of text-based passwords is that you can have them as stars or whatever onscreen. And if the users are unwilling / too stupid to make secure passwords (with numbers/letters/symbols), a drawing isn't going to be fundamentally more secure anyways, it's just a gimmick.

Not a dupe

[phaunt]

No, this is not a duplicate, but an improvement on the Draw A Secret technology discussed there, as is stated in the summary:

The people behind the new work have refined the technique by parsing the shapes with a flexible grid, and using existing images as a background to reinforce memory of the password. This as opposed to the DAS technology, that uses a rigid grid and a user-drawn background image.

Re:More secure, less useful.

[vertinox]

True, they increase security over standard text passwords, but how am I supposed to give a throwaway password to a coworker so that he can use my machine while I'm on vacation?

Um... Not to side track. That is just a bad security practice. If you need to give your coworker rights to your computer, you give him rights to log into that work station with his name and password.

If he needs to get to your profile or files, then you simply give him the same permissions to access those files. In a windows environment, I would add him to the users so he could log into the machine locally and then set folder permissions to read/write to C:\document and settings\(my profile). On a Mac, I would give him read/write to my home directory. (Of course I don't trust my coworkers that much so I'd put the files they need access to in a single shared folder and let them have at that)

Of course you need to be on a domain of sorts and/or have rights to modify permissions on the files and folders that you own.

If you don't have the permissions to do so (which means IT security doesn't trust you), then I suspect your IT security would beat you with a large 2 by 4 if they found out you gave your password to a coworker.