Feature: Mouse helps in Quest for Digital IDs

Researchers at the Department of Computer Science at Queen Mary have invented a biometric security system that allows you to sign online using a computer mouse. Without the need for specialist equipment at the point of use it's hoped that this new software signature verification technique, written up in "IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence", will help in the expansion of e-commerce, by reassuring customers about their online security.

Security on most computers nowadays depends upon the traditional password, however passwords may be stolen, intercepted, dictionary hacked or guessed so there no way to check that the person entering the password is in fact the authorised person.

Current biometric systems most commonly identify individuals through some unique characteristic for example by their iris, retina, voice pattern, fingerprints, facial features or the pressure patterns of handwritten signature. But you are unlikely to find such expensive specialist equipment in everyday places. The on-line biometric software system invented at Queen Mary by Ross Everitt and Peter McOwan has the advantage that it uses only those items that would be available on any computer, anywhere: a keyboard and a computer mouse, and can work with any Java enabled web browser.

The software uses pattern processing algorithms combined with artificial intelligence to provide a biometric layer over traditional password based security. The system learns the optimal set of dynamic features in your mouse written signature that are unique to you, and uses these features to validate later signatures.

Combined with a test of typing style in trials, the researchers achieved a fraudulent access rate of only 4.4%, whilst authentic users access with a rate of 99%. In these trails the password and form of the signature was known; in reality it would not be. The artificial intelligence system used also means the system can learn over time to incorporate changes of the users' typing and mouse signature characteristics.

McOwan says: 'Our system builds on already familiar user skills, typing and mouse movements, and we find users can reliably reproduce complex mouse based signatures. Asking someone to sign online doesn't carry the negative stigma associated, for example, with fingerprinting.'

While Everitt suggests that: 'any current internet or controlled computer access application where a password is currently used can benefit from this additional layer of biometric security provided by our system, for example online banking, shopping, or accessing web based email. In addition the principles can be applied for biometric systems confirming identity at security checkpoints without the need for expensive specialist equipment.'

Associated Link: Further details and video of system in action

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