PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Carnegie Mellon scheme uses shared visual cues to help people remember multiple passwords

New approach strikes balance between password security and usability

2013-12-04
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon scheme uses shared visual cues to help people remember multiple passwords New approach strikes balance between password security and usability PITTSBURGH—It turns out that the way to keep track of your many passwords to online accounts is the same as how to get to Carnegie Hall — practice, practice, practice. So researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have devised a scheme that enables users to create 100 or more passwords by remembering — and regularly rehearsing — a small number of one-sentence stories. The story sentences become the basis for password fragments that are randomly combined to create unique, strong passwords for multiple accounts. The scheme ensures that people remember these sentences by pairing them with photos, which serve as mnemonic devices, and by making sure that people either use or rehearse these sentences frequently enough to keep their memories fresh. These "naturally rehearsing passwords" require a bit more work for the user at the outset than existing password practices, acknowledged Jeremiah Blocki, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department. "But if you can memorize nine stories, our system can generate distinct passwords for 126 accounts," Blocki said. By memorizing more stories, users can create even more passwords or can make their passwords even more secure. And by reusing and recombining those stories for each password, people naturally rehearse them more often and thus remember them better. Blocki will present a research paper on naturally rehearsing passwords on Dec. 5 at ASIACRYPT 2013, a scientific conference on cryptology in Bangalore, India. Blocki and his collaborators — Manuel Blum, professor of computer science, and Anupam Datta, associate professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering — say the scheme addresses a major usability and security problem posed by the Internet's reliance on passwords. Even casual Internet users accumulate so many passwords that they are difficult or impossible to remember. As a result, too many people simply use the same password over and over, or write down their passwords or use other shortcuts that leave their accounts vulnerable to attackers. Rather than require websites to revise password practices, the researchers have created an application that helps prompt the memory of users. It is in the process of being implemented as a mobile app as part of an undergraduate research project. Blum said the researchers based their approach on cognitive research on the relationship between memory retention and the frequency at which those memories are rehearsed. They also drew inspiration from "Moonwalking with Einstein," a 2011 bestseller in which author Joshua Foer recounts his experiences in the world of competitive memorization. In particular, they borrowed the concept of the Person-Action-Object, or PAO, System, in which long sequences of numbers or letters are memorized by associating them with images. In their scheme, a user initially selects a photo of a person and a photo of an evocative scene; the computer then randomly selects a photo of an object and a photo of an action. With those photos, the user then creates a PAO story that is as vivid and unusual as possible. For instance, photos of President Bill Clinton, a piranha and someone kissing might result in a story, "Bill Clinton kissing a piranha," or "President smooches a fish." By taking the first letter from each word, or the first three letters from the first two words, the user could generate part of a password. For each account, the application would randomly assign several such photo combinations and the user would create a password using the letters associated with each photo. During subsequent logons, the application would provide the photos as a memory prompt; even if the user forgets the password, he can reconstruct the password by looking at the photos and recalling the associated story. Though the photos could be public and unprotected, the exact stories associated with each and the ways they are translated into passwords would be known only to the user. Datta said even if an attacker discovered one complete password, it wouldn't compromise any other passwords. The application would keep track of the time intervals between uses of each photo/story pair. Blocki said cognitive research suggests that as memories are created, a person may initially need to rehearse the story every day or two; over time, the intervals can grow much longer. If a person didn't see a photo compilation and rehearse the associated story within the appropriate interval, the application would prompt the person to rehearse it. Over time, however, as the memory becomes consolidated, normal password use likely will give users all of the rehearsal time necessary, he added. Blocki said users might have as few as nine photo/story pairs, though he personally has opted to use 43 stories to maintain greater security. "The most annoying thing about using the system isn't remembering the stories, but the password restrictions of some sites," said Blocki, who noted that some sites, for instance, require use of numbers, figures or capital letters in passwords, or have maximum character counts. "In those cases, I just make a note to, for instance, add a '1' to the password," he said. Writing down password information normally is a bad practice, but Blocki said these notes aren't a problem with naturally rehearsing passwords. "The security is inherent in the passwords themselves," he explained, "and the notes don't affect that." This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. ### The Computer Science Department is part of CMU's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Pittsburgh, Pa., California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Can iPads help students learn science? Yes.

2013-12-04
Can iPads help students learn science? Yes. The scale of the universe can be difficult to comprehend. Pretend you are going to make a scale model with a basketball representing the Earth and a tennis ball as the Moon. How far would you ...

Multiple mates worth the risk for female prairie dogs

2013-12-04
Multiple mates worth the risk for female prairie dogs FROSTBURG, MD (December 4, 2013) –Mating with more than one male increases reproductive success for female prairie dogs, despite an increase in risks. This is according to ...

Mysteries of Earth's radiation belts uncovered by NASA twin spacecraft

2013-12-04
Mysteries of Earth's radiation belts uncovered by NASA twin spacecraft DURHAM, N.H. -- Just over a year since launch, NASA's Van Allen Probes mission continues to unravel longstanding mysteries of Earth's high-energy radiation belts that encircle our planet and ...

Data on people's self-reported 'experienced' well-being could help inform policies

2013-12-04
Data on people's self-reported 'experienced' well-being could help inform policies WASHINGTON -- Gathering survey data on "experienced" well-being – the self-reported levels of contentment, joy, stress, frustration, and other feelings people experience throughout ...

CU-Boulder-led team finds first evidence of primates regularly sleeping in caves

2013-12-04
CU-Boulder-led team finds first evidence of primates regularly sleeping in caves Scientists have discovered that some ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar regularly retire to limestone chambers for their nightly snoozes, the first evidence of the consistent, ...

Study finds that carbon monoxide can help shrink tumors and amplify effectiveness of chemotherapy

2013-12-04
Study finds that carbon monoxide can help shrink tumors and amplify effectiveness of chemotherapy Therapeutic benefits appear linked to cell's energy status; used in combination with chemo, CO helps spare healthy tissue BOSTON -- In recent years, ...

The first decade: Team reports on US trials of bioenergy grasses

2013-12-04
The first decade: Team reports on US trials of bioenergy grasses CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The first long-term U.S. field trials of Miscanthus x giganteus, a towering perennial grass used in bioenergy production, reveal ...

AGU journal highlights -- Dec. 4, 2013

2013-12-04
AGU journal highlights -- Dec. 4, 2013 The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G3), Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), and Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D). In ...

Death of an adult son increases depressive symptoms in mothers, but not fathers

2013-12-04
Death of an adult son increases depressive symptoms in mothers, but not fathers PRINCETON, NJ—Mothers – but not fathers – exhibited symptoms of depression and experienced declines in overall health after ...

New target identified for preventing bone destruction in diseases such as arthritis and cancer

2013-12-04
New target identified for preventing bone destruction in diseases such as arthritis and cancer VIDEO: The skeleton is constantly being remodelled by the breakdown ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

​​​​​​​The Lancet: Plastic pollution is an underrecognised threat to health, experts warn as they launch a project to track plastics’ health impacts and monitor progress

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics to track impact of plastic production and pollution on human health

Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

Study unexpectedly finds living in rural, rather than urban environments in first five years of life could be a risk factor for developing type 1 diabetes

Editorial urges deeper focus on heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease

Five University of Tennessee faculty receive Fulbright Awards

5 advances to protect water sources, availability

OU Scholar awarded Fulbright for Soviet cinema research

Brain might become target of new type 1 diabetes treatments

‘Shore Wars:’ New research aims to resolve coastal conflict between oysters and mangroves, aiding restoration efforts

Why do symptoms linger in some people after an infection? A conversation on post-acute infection syndromes

Study reveals hidden drivers of asthma flare-ups in children

Physicists decode mysterious membrane behavior

New insights about brain receptor may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

Melanoma ‘sat-nav’ discovery could help curb metastasis

When immune commanders misfire: new insights into rheumatoid arthritis inflammation

SFU researchers develop a new tool that brings blender-like lighting control to any photograph

Pups in tow, Yellowstone-area wolves trek long distances to stay near prey

AI breakthrough unlocks 'new' materials to replace lithium-ion batteries

Making molecules make sense: A regional explanation method reveals structure–property relationships

Partisan hostility, not just policy, drives U.S. protests

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: August 1, 2025

Young human blood serum factors show potential to rejuvenate skin through bone marrow

Large language models reshape the future of task planning

Narrower coverage of MS drugs tied to higher relapse risk

Researchers harness AI-powered protein design to enhance T-cell based immunotherapies

Smartphone engagement during school hours among US youths

Online reviews of health care facilities

MS may begin far earlier than previously thought

New AI tool learns to read medical images with far less data

[Press-News.org] Carnegie Mellon scheme uses shared visual cues to help people remember multiple passwords
New approach strikes balance between password security and usability