Rutgers researchers cooking up safer password clues

NSF-funded research leading to "activity-based" password hints

Rutgers University researchers are testing whether "activity-based" password hint questions are better at safeguarding security than the static ones we're all used to, such as "What's your mother's maiden name?"

These activity-based password clues would be tied to your recent activity, like "What were you doing at noon yesterday?"

"We want the question to be dynamic," said Danfeng Yao, assistant professor of computer science in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, in a statement.  "The questions you get today will be different from the ones you would get tomorrow."

Early results are promising Yao says, especially when the password hints are focused around time, such as "When did you send your last email?"

Here's a video with Yao elaborating on the research.

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