GOTPass Lets You Use Images and Patterns as Your Password

You all know how difficult it is to remember a password if it is supposed to be secured. However, thanks to the researchers who just didn’t give up to create a perfect password that is secured and easy to remember at the same time. Few months ago, researchers from University of Southern California came up with a great idea of poetry as password. And this time, researchers from Plymouth University have formulated something more interesting. Called GOTPass, the system is a combination of patterns, imagery, and one-time numerical code that could provide a secure and easy to use alternative to long, difficult and easy to crack passwords.

The GOTPass setup is quite simple. It’s a one-time setup where users would have to choose a unique username and draw any pattern on a 4X4 grid, similar to the one you’ve already used to unlock your Android device. After you choose a pattern, they will be assigned four random themes, and asked to choose one. They’ll have their password after picking from four grids.

The login process is far easier. Just enter your user name and draw the pattern. In the next step, there will be 16 images; of them, 2 images are from those 4 you’ve picked during the setup, rest 14 are a mix up of distractors and decoys. All you have to do now is just select the right images, and you will be provided a one-time passcode to enter into the relevant box.

It may sound very complicated, but the initial tests have shown that it is much easier for users to remember rather than typing a simple password. Researchers also proved the password to be much more secured. Using a mix of random and targeted methodology, they attempted to hack accounts 690 times. Of them 8 hackings were genuinely successful and 15 were achieved through coincidence. Researchers are now planning further experiments to test its usability and efficiency.