A Novel Cue based Picture Word Shape Character Password Creation Scheme

The number of internet users is growing at a rapid rate and this means users now have to remember passwords for many different accounts. The side effects of this increase of user accounts is that users are putting password usability before password security in order to remember these passwords. This paper outlines a novel password creation scheme for creating strong, secure unique passwords that are easier for users to remember on multiple sites. The scheme includes features to more easily create a secure password and recall this password, whilst including multiple layers of security against a targeted attack by an adversary. Results showed that users who did not use a scheme had a much lower login success rate for their accounts than the users who used the created scheme. They also showed that the average password length for each group of users was the same meaning the created scheme passwords in this sample has no greater protection against brute-force attacks, but in terms of dictionary and hybrid attacks the scheme passwords generally seemed to have a lot more protection.