Kai Corporation, a developer of authentication system technology, has acquired a basic patent for a new type of authentication system that utilizes the memory of users themselves.
Unlike current password and biometric systems, this system is a "third kind" of authentication system, where the task of authentication is done not by machines or computers, but by humans. Kai Corporation, which considers this system to represent a paradigm shift from conventional authentication systems, has begun to market PASSMEMORY both in and outside Japan.
The basic patent for PASSMEMORY concerns a system where users register, in advance, names of acquaintances or places they have visited, old photos, or sounds that they remember, and during the authentication process, users choose the right answers from lists that contain multiple "decoy answers." Users select the required number (which can be freely set) of "unforgettable names," then the system mixes these with decoy names, chosen at random, to create lists of names. The number of lists can be freely set.
For authentication, users choose, in quick succession, registered names that they remember. If the authentication uses 10 names per list (one set by the authorized user, and nine decoys) with five lists, the probability of guessing all answers correctly is 1/100,000. However, because authentication must be done manually in a limited time (which can be freely set), it is extremely difficult for anyone other than the authorized user to be authenticated. For the time being, Kai Corporation plans to produce practical systems that use text data, such as lists of friends' names.
Passwords, which are currently in widespread use, must be changed frequently to prevent unauthorized use. This makes password administration increasingly complicated. Moreover, biometric authentication technology, which is expected to come into widespread use in the future, has technical issues that must be resolved; for example, it requires comparatively expensive terminal equipment, has problems with accuracy, and possesses the possibility that users' biometric data will be abused.
"The administrative efforts necessary to compensate for the shortcomings of today's widely used password systems have grown more and more complicated, spinning out of our control. There's no denying that even the all-important human may be excluded from the biometrically-based alternative systems that are starting to enter the market," said Akira Taguchi, president of Kai Corporation. "Our system is an entirely different approach from those of both password-based and biometric systems, capable of resolving any number of challenges facing many companies."
The Kai Corporation patent is the system itself, as well as in the embedded recording media, such as USB memory.
The PASSMEMORY patent application in Japan was filed on December 25, 2000, and Patent No. 3695695 was acquired on July 8, 2005. A US patent application has also been filed based on the Japanese patent. From now on, Kai Corporation will market PASSMEMORY in the US.