This Technique Was Supposed to Replace Passwords. Turns Out It’s Surprisingly Easy to Hack
Stick to your four- or six-digit PIN
By Mark Wilson
Passwords suck, which is why so many of us dream of a world where we don’t have them at all. But remembering names and numbers does hold some advantages over newfangled alternatives. According to new research (PDF) out of New Jersey Institute of Technology, the George Washington University, and Ruhr University Bochum, a popular password alternative prized by LG is both more hackable and easier to forget than previously thought.
The password technique in question is called a knock code. Such codes trace from ancient Greece to turn-of-the-century Russian prisons, in which a series of knocks or taps were equated with various letters. LG’s smartphones offer a super simplified version of the concept: You have a 2 x 2 grid, and you design your own password by hitting these boxes in any sequence you like. It’s a somewhat similar idea to Android patterns, which let you trace your finger across points on a screen to draw your password instead of typing it.
