Graphical User Authentication

Abstract

High security demands long, arbitrary sequences of elements, but humans are good at remembering short and meaningful sequences – thus pitting security and memorability of passwords against each other This inverse relationship between memorability and security has led researchers to look for alternatives to alphanumeric passwords. Graphical authentication mechanisms, which use pictorial material as elements of the passcode, have been proposed to improve passcode memorability.Previous studies (Johnson & Werner, 2006; 2007) have shown that Composite Scene Authentication (CSA) passcodes are more memorable than alphanumeric passwords over extended retention intervals. This study evaluated the memorability of six types of graphical passcodes of varying complexity.