Banking on emojis
Security is evolving. We're seeing trends towards biometric logins like fingerprint and retina scans, while many sites are starting to adopt two-factor authentication. And when it comes to banking sites, PIN codes are the norm. Maybe not for long, as a British firm is letting users of its Android app use a combination of emojis instead of numbers.
That company is Intelligent Environments and it claims the world's first emoji-only passcode launched today is more secure and easier to remember than traditional passcodes.
"Emoji passcode is mathematically more secure than traditional methods. There are 480 times more permutations using emojis over traditional four digit passcodes," Intelligent Environments says. " In addition, it will prevent hackers from identifying common and easily obtainable numerical passcodes, like a date of birth or a wedding anniversary."
The company said it developed its app in response to research showing that over 25 percent of Brits have forgotten their PINs in the past. Emojis, on the other hand, offer an advantage in that research also shows that humans tend to remember pictures more easily than words or numbers. The decision to use emojis also can about as a way of catering to a younger generation of users.
"We’ve had input from lots of millennials when we developed the technology. What’s clear is that the younger generation is communicating in new ways," said David Webber, Manager Director at Intelligent Environments. "Our research shows 64 percent of millennials regularly communicate only using emojis. So we decided to reinvent the passcode for a new generation by developing the world’s first emoji security technology."
What do you think about using emojis instead of traditional PIN codes -- good idea or bad?
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1LaOWcw
