Philosophical Survey of Passwords (0909.2367v1)

Abstract: Over the years security experts in the field of Information Technology have had a tough time in making passwords secure. This paper studies and takes a careful look at this issue from the angle of philosophy and cognitive science. We have studied the process of passwords to rank its strengths and weaknesses in order to establish a quality metric for passwords. Finally we related the process to human senses which enables us to propose a constitutional scheme for the process of password. The basic proposition is to exploit relationship between human senses and password to ensure improvement in authentication while keeping it an enjoyable activity.