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Locking Thieves Out of Your Smartphone

Locking Thieves Out of Your Smartphone

February 7, 2017

Homeland & Cyber Security, Press Releases

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have developed a technique that identifies a smartphone thief or intruder in under 14 seconds.

“While most people are confident that password protecting a phone is sufficient, they tend to choose familiar passwords that are easy to guess,” says BGU researcher Liron Ben Kimon. “With our approach, even if someone has the password, they can’t replicate a smartphone user’s unique behavior.”

liron-ben-kimon

Liron Ben Kimon

Liron Ben Kimon recently completed her M.Sc. in data mining and business intelligence in the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering supervised by Prof. Bracha Shapira, Prof. Lior Rokach and Yisroel Mirsky. She is now a data scientist at PayPal in Beer-Sheva’s Advanced Technologies Park adjacent to the University.

“What is new about this verification method is that the model evaluates the touch pattern sequence,” Ben Kimon says. “For example, smartphone users interact with their device while using Google differently than they might type a message, and we can detect that.”

Her verification model extracts information from a phone’s sensors to identify speed and frequency of touch combined with the application being used. The program also computes 30 seconds of recent history, such as which screens a user touched, which buttons were pressed and how much electricity he/she used.

The researchers culled information from 20 users over a two-week period to develop their model, which shows that unauthorized users can be identified in under 14 seconds with less than 35 screen actions. On average, a user touches the screen 35 times in 13.8 seconds.

“A thief will almost certainly touch the screen more than 35 times to steal information because he is not familiar with an owner’s phone settings and apps,” Ben Kimon says. “The phone can learn the typical touch and sequence pattern, and lock out an unauthorized user to prevent data theft, or someone you don’t want peeking at your messages.”

Three million phones were stolen in the United States, and another three million were lost in 2013, according to Consumer Reports.

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

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