My authentication album: Adaptive images-based login mechanism

Abstract

We present the design and user study of an adaptive authentication mechanism based on recognition of user-custom images. The mechanism relies on memorizing the custom images on each primary login, and adaptively increasing the authentication difficulty upon failures (suspected impersonation attempts). The constant memorization of the images allows fallback authentication by recognizing all/most of the user's custom images. Our mechanism can be used for multiple authentication scenarios; in particular, it can provide effective phishing protection for primary and/or fallback web login. The mechanism features quick authentication times and low guessing probabilities. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.