Graphical Passwords for Older Computer Users

Abstract

Computers and the internet have been challenging for many computer users over the age of 60. We conducted a survey of older users which revealed that the creation, management and recall of strong text passwords were some of the challenging aspects of modern technology. In practice, this user group based passwords on familiar facts such as family member names, pets, phone numbers and important personal dates. Graphical passwords formed from abstract graphical symbols or anonymous facial images are feasible, but harder for older computers users to grasp and recall. In this paper we describe initial results for our graphical password system based on recognition of culturally-familiar facial images that are age-relevant to the life experiences of older users. Our goals are to design an easy-to-memorize, graphical password system intended specifically for older users, and achieve a level of password entropy comparable to traditional PINs and text passwords. We are also conducting a user study to demonstrate our technique and capture performance and recall metrics for comparison with traditional password systems.