Using Composite Scene Authentication (Csa) as a Graphical Alternative to Alphanumeric Password Systems

Abstract

Current authentication strategies seek to increase security by requiring users to create more secure alphanumeric passwords, but the inverse relationship between alphanumeric password security and memorability prevents users from being able to create a password that is both secure and memorable. Graphical user authentication mechanisms have been explored as a means to maintain security while enhancing memorability of passcodes. Current approaches often use unrelated picture sets from which participants have to remember a subset, with mixed results. Proposed in this paper is an alternative approach of using a Composite Scene Authentication (CSA) mechanism to maximize memorability of graphical passcodes. In the current study, a composite image consisting of nine elements was compared to a nine character hexadecimal password. Participants were able to correctly recognize the CSA mechanism 80% of the time, but only able to recall the hexadecimal password 20% of the time.