Influencing Users Towards Better Passwords: Persuasive Cued Click-Points

Usable security has unique usability challenges because the need for security often means that standard human-computer-interaction approaches cannot be directly applied. An important usability goal for authentication systems is to support users in selecting better passwords, thus increasing security by expanding the effective password space. In click-based graphical passwords, poorly chosen passwords lead to the emergence of hotspots - portions of the image where users are more likely to select click-points, allowing attackers to mount more successful dictionary attacks. The authors use persuasion to influence user choice in click-based graphical passwords, encouraging users to select more random, and hence more secure, click-points.