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Oana Ciurea for Sibiu Web Meetup

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Typing Behavior as Authentication Method

Have you ever thought of the way you type as a criteria of establishing your unique identity? Well, our unique typing behavior is a way of identifying a person and it is currently exploited by identity and access management solutions.

Recent years studies show that written communication via digital devices is preferred over verbal communication (phone calls) among teenagers and young adults. So the exploitation of their typing behavior came only natural and are being integrated just as natural in the software solutions we use.

Such solutions assess the user’s typing behavior in terms of typing speed, keys pressing and releasing times, movement of the mouse, the position of the device. Using such data, a typer profile is created that is unique for the user and can be used an authentication method.

We discussed the subject in depth with one our guests @SibiuWebMeetup. Check out the video


DID YOU KNOW?
Does the idea of human typing behavior as a way of identification and authentication might seem new or even futuristic?
Well, it appears that it was first exploited in the second world war when the military intelligence noticed that the way the Morse code is transmitted can say something about the sender, in that particular case, if the sender was their soldier or the enemy’s. They called the methodology “Fist of the Sender”.


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