A more secure way to send your passwords? Through your body.

Password information sent through air using wi-fi or Bluetooth is vulnerable to hacking. Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered a way to send password information more securely – through one’s body. Visualize one hand touching a smart phone screen and the other touching an electronic smart lock. Researchers have found a way for a smartphone to read and send the password information through the body to a unlock a door. Another use could be sending readings from one's body to a wearable medical devices, such as a glucose sensor.

UW’s research team studied smartphone sensors to find the point where benign low frequency transmissions generated by fingerprint sensors travel well through the body, but are not transmitted through the air. They found that the 2 to 10 megahertz range was just enough to sense the finger and identify the ridges and valleys that form a unique fingerprint pattern. In their testing, researchers found that the data could be transmitted successfully regardless of individual body type, the posture of the body, or whether the body was stationary or in motion. 

Researchers found a way to repurpose the signals normally received as input from the smartphone sensors or laptop trackpads to output corresponding to a password. They were able to send data through the body and to a receiver within seconds. 

These finding are only a first step. Researchers hope to be able to work with fingerprint sensor manufacturers, specifically to have better access to their software, to continue to refine and speed up transmission. To learn more about the team and see illustrations of this concept, follow the link below.

Secure passwords can be sent through your body, instead of air

Jennifer Langston, UW Today, September 27, 2016