Like most people who use the internet I have more passwords than any human should ever be forced to think up. I went all adult about it and saved them in some free app, then promptly had my phone stolen and lost them all.

I guess you get what you pay for, although if Google are to be believed the simple password may soon be a thing of the past. Regina Dugan, head of Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects Group, recently gave a speech where she said that we are in the process of moving towards actions as a means of authentications.

You may be a little confused so let’s break it down to four actions courtesy of BusinessInsider:

Swiping – Fingerprints, the quintessential personal ID, are less replicable than the average string of alphanumerics, which is why devices from the iPhone to the Lenovo ThinkPad are equipped with fingerprint scanners…

Taking the speed, pressure, and rhythm a person uses as they swipe and type into account will add an additional layer of security and make remote hacking far more difficult.

Talking – In addition to carrying a baseline acoustic “voiceprint,” the human voice carries information about variables like cadence, accent, and emotional state, all of which make hacking more difficult as long as authentication rests on the characteristics of speech and not simply on a spoken password…

Blinking – MasterCard recently began rolling out its IdentityCheck system, which allows users to verify their purchases with a selfie rather than a signature. Still, a mere photo won’t suffice: Faces can be replicated even more easily than fingerprints and voices. In addition to recognizing your face, systems like IdentityCheck also require users to blink — verifying that you’re actually there.

Walking – The motion sensors and accelerometers on smartphones are often overlooked as security devices, but even macro-scale movements — like gait or speed — are potential identifying factors. By analyzing [sic] a person’s walk, a phone could determine whether it was in its rightful owner’s pocket without requiring them to actively authenticate.

That last one could prove problematic given that there’s a big difference between my Monday morning walk and a Friday late night walk.

Those fears aside I’m all for anything that means I don’t have to deal with passwords any longer, I think that’s something we can all agree on.

[source:businessinsider]