May the Force Be with You: The Future of Force-Sensitive Authentication

Modern smartphones provide a rich set of possible touchscreen interactions, but most authentication schemes still rely on simple digit or character input. Previous studies examined the shortcomings of such schemes (digit-PINs, for example). Here, the authors discuss the potential of a new PIN type called force-PINs. The idea behind this approach is to augment the security of digit-PINs by assigning a binary pressure value to each digit in the sequence. By adding this (practically) invisible pressure component, force-PINs help users select stronger PINs that are harder to observe. The authors also discuss implications for future research on force-sensitive authentication.