Passmap
Passmap () is an image based method used for authentication, similar to passwords. The word passmap originates from the word password by substituting word with pass. Passmap is a patented technology of Hydrabyte, Inc.
Easy to remember, hard to guess
A common way of authentication (e.g.: online services) is using character based passwords. However, the human brain tends to remember shapes and structures easier than characters. Passmap substitutes the characters used for passwords with a single image. You can choose your favorite image (e.g.: shot with your camera) to be your personal passmap. Your image is divided into at least 64 sub-parts with a rectangular grid. An example is shown using an image of the Statue of Liberty on the top of this page. When creating your passmap, you select at least five sub-parts of the image in a fixed sequence that forms your secret of authentication. With the selected sub-parts you can form structures that are easy for you to remember, or you can use the underlying image to serve as a guide in remembering your passmap. In a cryptographic sense, passmap is equal to defining a password over an alphabet of at least 64 characters.
Effective against phishing
Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. The process consists of creating a fake website of a common web service that mimics the functionality of authenticating users. Passmap can protect a website against phishing effectively, because no matter how perfectly an attacker can fake a website, it is extremely difficult to retrieve all the images of the users that is needed for authentication.
Touchscreen friendly
Touchscreen is becoming a common way of interacting with mobile devices. Such devices have virtual keyboards to input characters, the keys of which are often small and hard to hit. Moreover, special characters (which are often required to be part of a password) can often be accessed only by touching multiple keys. Contrary to this, authenticating with Passmap is as simple as touching sub-parts of an image that you can even zoom into, to better fit your finger.