Pico in the Wild: Replacing Passwords, One Site at a Time Seb Aebischer∗, Claudio Dettoni∗, Graeme Jenkinson∗, Kat Krol∗, David Llewellyn-Jones∗, Toshiyuki Masui† and Frank Stajano∗ ‡ ∗Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge Email: fi
[email protected] †Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University Email:
[email protected] Abstract—Passwords are a burden on the user, especially their accounts and accesses will stay secure. Almost every nowadays with an increasing number of accounts and a pro- month, we hear about high-profile password breaches [4] and liferation of different devices. Pico is a token-based login method learn about companies’ poor password storage practices [5]. that does not ask users to remember any secrets, nor require keyboard entry of one-time passwords. We wish to evaluate its In this paper, we present the findings of a user study claim of being simultaneously more usable and more secure than conducted to evaluate a token-based password replacement passwords, whilst testing its support for frictionless deployment to web-based services. Our main aim is to collect actionable solution called Pico. Faced with the significant usability and intelligence on how to improve it. In our study, we teamed up security shortcomings of passwords, Stajano [6] proposed Pico with an Alexa Top 500 website, Gyazo, to offer this alternative as an alternative authentication scheme. In the implementation login mechanism to users intent on performing a real task of we studied, Pico is a smartphone application that performs image sharing. We focused on the ecological validity of the trial, authentication to a website, replacing the need for the user to and gained knowledge both through the challenges of the trial enter a username or password.