Do you lock your Android with a pattern on the keyboard? We often mention passwords, highlighting the need to use long passwords that contain unusual characters. Passwords like "12345" or "password" are easily predictable and therefore do not protect you.
However, it turns out that Android's security feature that does not use passwords but "draws" a shape on the device's keys is just as predictable as common passwords.
Marte Løge, a graduate of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, analyzed 4,000 designs of this Android lock and discovered that 77% of them were predictable, starting from one of the four corners.
As Ars Technica reports, the researcher also found that 44% of participants started their designs in the top left corner. Loge detailed her findings at the PasswordsCon conference held in Las Vegas.
As the researcher's study revealed, the virtual patterns created by the participants, and by extension most people, are four-node patterns. Patterns with eight nodes were less popular.
Interestingly, about 10% of the patterns using nodes connect letters like M or N, and usually represent a user's significant other or child.
Although Loge's research was the first to address this particular Android lock, it demonstrated that the best practice for locks is not to start from a corner.
For best results, you can use intersections and as many nodes as possible.
Source: secnewsgr.kinsta.cloud
