Memorable And Secure: How Do You Choose Your PIN?

Gutmann, A., Volkamer, M. and Renaud, K. (2016) Memorable And Secure: How Do You Choose Your PIN? In: International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security and Assurance (HAISA 2016), Frankfurt, Germany, 19 - 21 July 2016, pp. 156-166. ISBN 9781841024134

Abstract

Managing all your PINs is difficult. Banks acknowledge this by allowing and facilitating PIN changes. However, choosing secure PINs is a difficult task for humans as they are incapable of consciously generating randomness. This leads to certain PINs being chosen more frequently than others, which in turn increases the danger of someone else guessing correctly. We investigate different methods of supporting PIN changes and report on an evaluation of these methods in a study with 152 participants. Our contribution is twofold: We introduce an alternative to system-generated random PINs, which considers people’s preferred memorisation strategy, and, secondly, we provide indication that presenting guidance on how to avoid insecure PINs does indeed nudge people towards more secure PIN choices when they are in the process of changing their PINs.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Renaud, Professor Karen
• Authors: Gutmann, A., Volkamer, M., and Renaud, K.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781841024134
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Tenth International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA 2016): 156-166
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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