October 13, 2003—Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed software that is able to identify computer users by their distinct typing styles. This “behaviometric” technology may one day be part of security systems to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to computers and sensitive data, the institute says. It can also be extended to other applications that involve a sufficiently complex interaction between humans and machines, such as identifying unauthorized drivers or pilots.
The system’s innovation is the ability to identify the legal user as he or she types freely—a contrast to currently existing technologies that can only achieve equally high recognition rates if both the legal user and the intruder are asked to type the same long sentence (similar to standard passwords).
The system’s accuracy depends upon the length of its training. But even after a relatively short session consisting of several typed sentences, the system can distinguish the user from potential intruders with around 90 percent accuracy from a sentence as short as ‘What did you do today?’ After its initial training, the system continues monitoring the user and obtaining more keystroke sequences, allowing it to reach extremely high rates of recognition.
