Sep 13, 2014

Brainwaves May Be the Future of Passwords, Says John Chuang

From The San Francisco Chronicle

Beyond passwords: taking cybersecurity to the next level

By David R. Baker

The password has failed.

That ubiquitous annoyance of the digital age - the computer password - has proved itself to be profoundly unsafe....

Security experts have argued for years that the password, at least as it's used today, must go. They are less certain about what should replace it....

UC Berkeley Professor John Chuang argues for going even deeper.

He and his colleagues have used the brain's electrical activity to verify identity. The process requires people to envision a task, such as singing their favorite song or performing a sport they enjoy, while wearing a relatively inexpensive EEG (electroencephalography) monitor. The devices - made by several companies for about $100 - look like a telephone headset with a small arm touching the forehead rather than angling toward the mouth.

"I guess this looks a little silly, but it's something you can easily put on or take off," said Chuang, with the university's School of Information. "It looks a little like Google Glass."...

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Last updated:

October 4, 2016