lockpattern
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Android lock patterns as predictable as common passwords
Know how a lot of people tend to use passwords such as "123456" or, well, "password?" Well, turns out Android lock patterns (ALPs) are just as predictable. Norwegian University of Science and Technology graduate Marte Løge analyzed 4,000 patterns for her master's thesis and found that 77 percent of the participants started from one of the four corners, and 44 percent started their patterns from the top left one. Løge presented her findings at the PasswordsCon conference in Las Vegas, where she told Ars Technica that "We're seeing the same aspects used when creating pattern locks [as are used in] pin codes and alphanumeric passwords."
Shocker: Touchscreen smudge may give away your Android password pattern
Fast food connoisseurs should pay special attention here -- according to a recent paper by the University of Pennsylvania, Android users are inadvertently leaving their nine-dot lock patterns in the open, courtesy of their fingers' oily smear on the screen. Specifically, the study on potential "smudge attacks" found that partial or complete patterns could be easily retrieved -- even with added noise on the display or after incidental clothing contact -- by using various lighting and camera orientation settings for the smear analysis. Should we be surprised? No. But should our phones be getting Froyo sooner for the extra PIN and QWERTY password options? Hell yeah.
