Probably just another ploy by RIAA! (just kidding)
Hey, You're Not My User!. Do you need a password? Not anymore, if a software developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology becomes mainstream. In this news release,
Newswise writes that researchers have developed a software able "to
identify computer users -- with high accuracy -- by their individual,
distinct typing styles."
This "behaviometric" technology may one
day be part of security systems to prevent unauthorized users from
gaining access to computers and sensitive data.
The system prototype was developed in the Data Mining Lab
of the Technion[base ']s Computer Science Faculty by students Ido Yariv and
Mordechai Nisenson, under the supervision of Technion Professors Ran El-Yaniv and Ron Meir.
Their paper, "Towards Behaviometric Security Systems: Learning to
Identify a Typist," was presented at the European Conference on Machine
Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in
Databases (ECML/PKDD 2003).
"This software is based upon a universal prediction
algorithm," explains El-Yaniv. "It utilizes statistics gathered while a
person types freely, and learns the specific behavior patterns that
accurately identify the typist." He goes on to explain that time
differential patterns between consecutive keystrokes can uniquely
determine a user. In some cases, this can be accomplished after only a
very few keystrokes.
Is the system really accurate?
The system[base ']s accuracy depends upon the length of its
training. But even after a relatively short session consisting of
several typed sentences, the system can distinguish the user from potential intruders with around 90 percent accuracy
from a sentence as short as [OE]What did you do today?[base '] After its initial
training, the system continues monitoring the user and obtaining more
keystroke sequences, allowing it to reach extremely high rates of
recognition.
Now, the researchers want to check the system[base ']s reliability by
introducing some "noise" changing the typing signature, like a finger
injury. Will they break the fingers of their testers? The story doesn't
go that far.
Source: American Technion Society, via Newswise, September 29, 2003 [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
3:35:26 PM 
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