SmartPass: a smarter geolocation‐based authentication scheme

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes an improved authentication method for mobile devices compared with commonly used authentication using characters (text passwords) and Personal Identification Number (PINs). The method introduced in this paper was developed to overcome the difficulty of remembering unfamiliar secrets such as a complex sequence of text characters while maintaining authentication strength. We introduce a new authentication approach, SmartPass, that works for both legacy systems and mobile devices. SmartPass is a web‐based mobile interface that provides a method to use visual map location secrets, which are theorized to be easier to remember and use than passwords and remain difficult for an adversary to guess. We evaluate the security strength of such a map‐based secret compared with traditional text password, PIN, and pattern secrets. This paper also seeks to evaluate user feedback as to the usability and memorability of this authentication method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.