The present invention relates generally to computer security, and more particularly but not exclusively to login authentication.
Users typically have to enter a password to gain access to a computer service, such as online banking, social network, email, and other services accessible over the Internet. To prevent unauthorized access to a user account, computer services typically require the user to choose a strong password. For example, passwords may be required to be at least eight characters long, contain uppercase and lowercase characters, contain special characters, not available in a dictionary, and/or have other restrictions to make the password very difficult to guess. Other computer services even require users to change passwords periodically (e.g., every 180 days). These security measures make passwords very difficult to remember, especially when users have multiple accounts on different computer services.
Some computer services implement a two-step Short Message Service (SMS) authentication, where the computer service sends a verification code by text message to a user’s mobile phone. While somewhat effective, two-step SMS authentication is time-consuming, requires the user to always carry a mobile phone, and is vulnerable to mobile phone theft.
Frictionless authentication refers to login authentication that makes it relatively easy for the user to login. One example of frictionless authentication is biometric authentication, where the user’s facial feature or fingerprint is used to authenticate the user. Although convenient, biometric authentication requires biometric sensors that, although widely available on mobile phones, are extra equipment to be purchased and require additional software support for most computers. Furthermore, there have been reports of hackers getting around face identification, fingerprint identification, and iris identification to gain unauthorized access to user accounts.
In one embodiment, a login authentication process to access a computer service includes displaying a virtual keyboard on a display screen of a computer. A user enters a password by clicking on the virtual keyboard. The manner the user clicked on the virtual keyboard to enter the password is compared to the manner an authorized user of the computer service clicked on the virtual keyboard to enter an authorized password during a learning phase. The login authentication is deemed to be a success when the password matches the authorized password, and the manner the user clicked on the virtual keyboard to enter the password matches the manner the authorized user clicked on the virtual keyboard to enter the authorized password.
These and other features of the present invention will be readily apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the entirety of this disclosure, which includes the accompanying drawings and claims.
The use of the same reference label in different drawings indicates the same or like components.
In the present disclosure, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of apparatus, components, and methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details. In other instances, well-known details are not shown or described to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
Referring now to
The computer system 100 is a particular machine as programmed with one or more software modules 110, comprising instructions stored non-transitory on the main memory 108 for execution by the processor 101 to cause the computer system 100 to perform corresponding programmed steps. An article of manufacture may be embodied as computer-readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by the processor 101 cause the computer system 100 to be operable to perform the functions of the one or more software modules 110.
In one embodiment where the computer system 100 is configured as a user computer, the software modules 110 may comprise a client module for accessing a computer service. In one embodiment where the computer system 100 is configured as a server computer, the software modules 100 may comprise server software for providing a computer service and an authentication module for providing frictionless authentication of users of the computer service.
A user computer 210 may comprise a desktop, laptop, or other computing device that a user employs to access a computer service provided by the server computer 220. The user computer 210 may include client software 211 for accessing the computer service provided by the server computer 220 over the Internet. In one embodiment, the client software 211 comprises a web browser, and the client software 211 receives webpages served by the server computer 220.
The server computer 220 may be configured to provide a computer service, such as online banking, social network, email, file storage, online conferencing, or other service that is accessible over the Internet. The server computer 220 may comprise at least one processor and memory, with the memory storing instructions of an authentication module 230 and server software 231. The at least one processor of the server computer 220 may execute the instructions of the server software 231 to cause the server computer 220 to provide the computer service. The at least one processor of the server computer 220 may execute the instructions of the authentication module 230 to perform frictionless authentication as further described below.
In one embodiment, the authentication module 230 is configured to maintain user data 221 for each user of the computer service. User data 221 may include a unique virtual keyboard 223 assigned to a user, click data 224 of the user, and a click pattern 225 of the user. In the example of
“Clicking” refers to pressing on an object displayed on a display screen to select the object, and includes touching the object with a finger as displayed on a touch-sensitive display screen and clicking a button of a pointing device while its pointer is on the object. A user may enter a password to login to his account on the computer service by clicking on virtual keys of the virtual keyboard 223. The user is authenticated to access the computer service based on the password the user entered, and the manner the user entered the password on the virtual keyboard 223, such as the user’s password-entry dynamics while entering the password on the virtual keyboard 223.
In one embodiment, a user’s password-entry dynamics include interval time and pressing time during password-entry. Interval time is the length of time it takes the user to click on a character (i.e., virtual key corresponding to the character), such as the time between displaying of the virtual keyboard 223 and the user clicking the first character of the password or the time between clicking of adjacent characters of the password. The login authentication is “frictionless” in that the password does not have to be strong, thus allowing for relatively easy login authentication. For example, the password may just be the username of the user or something simple, such as the user’s birthdate, street address, and so on. The password does not have to be strong because login authentication is primarily based on the way the user entered the password using the virtual keyboard 223.
The user may be allowed access to the computer service when the password entered by the user matches an authorized password entered by an authorized user on the virtual keyboard 223 during a learning phase, and when the manner the user entered the password on the virtual keyboard matches the manner the authorized user entered the authorized password on the virtual keyboard 223 during the learning phase. While an exact match may be required for the password, some level of deviation may be allowed to establish a match for the manner the user entered the password. The deviation may be adjusted to meet acceptable false positives/false negatives rates.
In one embodiment, the authentication module 230 is configured to assign a unique virtual keyboard 223 for each user. For example, the character layout of the virtual keyboard 223 may be randomly generated for each user. More particularly, one user may have a virtual key for the character “A” in one location of the virtual keyboard 223, and another user may have the virtual key for the character “A” in another location of the virtual keyboard 223. By having different character layouts for each user, different users would have different password-entry dynamics. That is, one user may take 2 seconds between clicking of characters “A” and “B”, and another user may take 5 seconds between clicking of characters “A” and “B” because the locations of the virtual keys for “A” and “B” may be different for each user. Also, because of physical and physiological differences between users, the interval times and pressing and times are expected to be different for different users. The authentication module 230 may include an initial learning phase during which the authentication module 230 learns the way an authorized user enters an authorized password on a virtual keyboard 223, and a login authentication phase during which a user is authenticated by having the user enter a password on the virtual keyboard 223.
In one embodiment, during the initial learning phase, the authentication module 230 prompts a user to enter a password on a virtual keyboard 223. As the user clicks characters (i.e., virtual keys of corresponding characters) of the password on the virtual keyboard 223, the authentication module 230 collects the interval times, pressing times, and the clicking sequence made by the user to enter the password. By prompting the user to enter the password several times, sufficient click data 224 of interval times and pressing times are collected.
The authentication module 225 may determine, from the click data 224, a click pattern 225 that indicates interval times to the first character and between characters, pressing time on each character, and the clicking sequence of the password as entered by the user. A suitable clustering algorithm may be employed on the click data 224 to generate the click pattern 225. Example clustering algorithms that may be employed include the LR clustering algorithm and GBDT+LR clustering algorithm. Other suitable clustering algorithms may also be employed without detracting from the merits of the present invention. In one embodiment, a click pattern 225 may include:
The user who entered the password on the virtual keyboard 223 during the learning phase is also referred to herein as an “authorized user” of the computer service, and the password entered by the user during the learning phase is also referred to herein as an “authorized password.”
In the application phase, a user attempting to login to the computer service is authenticated to ensure that the user is an authorized user of the computer service. In one embodiment, during the application phase, the server software 231 serves a webpage that displays the virtual keyboard 223 that has been assigned to the user. For example, the virtual keyboard 223 may be drawn using the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Document Object Model (DOM), with a <div> element being employed for each character. In that example, the CSS language may be used to control the character layout of the virtual keyboard 223. Each character of the virtual keyboard 223 may be an element of HTML DOM that binds mouse up and down events by JavaScript to get the interval times and pressing times. As another example, for Microsoft Windows applications, the virtual keyboard 223 may be implemented by drawing the virtual keyboard 223 using the Microsoft .NET Framework, using the button element for each character, and binding mouse up and down events on each button.
During the login authentication phase, the user enters his password by clicking on corresponding characters on the virtual keyboard 223 to generate entered click data, which comprise interval times, pressing times, and the clicking sequence. If the interval times, pressing times, and clicking sequence match those indicated in the click pattern 225 of the user, the login authentication is deemed to be a success and the user is allowed to access the computer service. Otherwise, when the entered click data do not match the click pattern 225 of the user, the login authentication is deemed to be a failure and the user is blocked from accessing the computer service. In the event of a failed login authentication, the user may be provided additional options, in case the user simply forgot his password, such by resetting the password using a preregistered email, answering predetermined security questions, or other conventional ways of regaining access to a computer service.
In the example of
In one embodiment, each virtual key may be represented as an array of character data, with the character data representing time data for the character. The character data may indicate interval time or pressing time. This feature of the present invention is illustrated in
In the example of
(ROW, COLUMN, ORDER)
where ROW and COLUMN indicate the location of the character on the virtual keyboard and ORDER indicates the number of times the character has been clicked (e.g., ORDER = 0 means the character has not been clicked, ORDER = 1 means the character is clicked the first time, ORDER = 2 means the character is clicked the second time. Using the example of
where (5,4,1) indicates that the character “T” (at location (5, 4)) is clicked the first time, (4,4,1) indicates that the character “E” (at location (4, 4)) is clicked the first time, (6,6,1) indicates that the character “S” (at location (6, 6)) is clicked the first time, (5,4,2) indicates that the character “T” is clicked the second time, and so on.
An interval time may be represented in seconds or some other unit of time. In the example of
The interval times for “TESTPASS” in the example of
A pressing time may be represented in milliseconds or some other unit of time. In the example of
The pressing times for “TESTPASS” in the example of
Instead of a username, a user may choose a simple password that is very easy to remember. Using a simple password adds some level of security, as a hacker has to know the simple password in addition to entering the simple password on the virtual keyboard in the same manner as the user.
In the example of
As can be appreciated, the design and layout of a virtual keyboard 223 may vary depending on the application. A virtual keyboard 223 does not have to be rectangular or two-dimensional. For example, a virtual keyboard 223 may be three-dimensional. This is illustrated in
In the example of
The computer service may require the user to enter a username and a password to login. During the learning phase of the login authentication process, the server computer 220 asks the user whether or not the user wants to have a password (step 302). The server computer 220 assigns the username of the user as the user’s password when the user does not want to have a password (step 302 to step 303). When the user wants to have a password, the server computer 220 receives a password from the user (step 302 to step 304). Advantageously, the password may be a simple password, because the login authentication process is not reliant on the strength of the password itself.
The server computer 220 serves the assigned virtual keyboard 223 to the user computer 210 of the user, and prompts the user to enter his password (either username or simple password in this example) on the virtual keyboard 223 several times (e.g., 5 or more times) (step 305). The server computer 220 collects clicking data 224 as the user enters the password (step 306). The clicking data 224 of the user may comprise interval times, pressing times, and clicking sequence. The clicking data 224 may have more or fewer password-entry dynamics of the user depending on the virtual keyboard 223. For example, the clicking data 224 may include drag and drop times and directions when the virtual keyboard is a three-dimensional virtual keyboard.
The server computer 220 generates a click pattern 225 of the user from the user’s clicking data 224 (step 307). For example, the server computer 220 may perform clustering, or other suitable algorithm, on the clicking data 224 to find password-entry dynamics that most fit the clicking data 224. The click pattern 225 may include interval times, pressing times, drag and drop times/direction, etc. that are most indicative of the manner the user enters the password on the virtual keyboard 223. The server computer 220 associates the user’s click pattern 225, virtual keyboard 223, and password by username.
In the example of
When the entered click data match the click pattern 225, the user may be allowed access to the computer service (step 324 to step 325). In that case, the click data 224 of the user collected during the learning phase may be updated with the entered click data (step 326), and the click pattern 225 may be regenerated using the updated click data 224 (step 327).
When the entered click data do not match the click pattern 225, the user may be blocked from accessing the computer service (step 324 to step 328). In that case, the user may be provided one or more options to try to gain access to the computer service (step 329), to cover situations where the user forgot his password or has an impaired physical condition that changes the user’s password-entry dynamics. The options may include conventional password-recovery methods, such as requiring the user to answer difficult and predetermined security questions, requiring the user to contact a live representative of the computer service, texting a temporary access code to the user’s mobile phone, etc.
Systems and methods for providing frictionless authentication for computer services have been disclosed. While specific embodiments of the present invention have been provided, it is to be understood that these embodiments are for illustration purposes and not limiting. Many additional embodiments will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art reading this disclosure.
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