Here are two great little security applications that attempt to simplify the online authentication process while making sites more resistant to bot and brute force attacks. Vidoop is a digital authentication system that eliminates the need for multiple and complex passwords. By making authentication dependent on image recognition and human cognition its creators have found a way to circumvent the need for traditional text-based passwords.

A Vidoop password is a sequence of image categories. If a user selects the categories “stereo, beverage, and boat” then that user will be required to select variations of those images, in that order, every time they log on. When signing on to a Vidoop enabled site a user is shown a grid containing a series of eight photographs with a single character overlaid on each image. By selecting the images that correspond to their predetermined password categories the user automatically enters a single use access code. Each time a user engages Vidoop the images in the grid are repositioned and repopulated with new variations. So, an image in the category “boat” may, at any given interval, be of a speedboat, a sailboat, or a canoe. The system may not totally hack-proof, but it beats having to remember several or more complex text-based passwords.

What makes Vidoop really interesting is its potential as an advertising platform. The images in the grid can be sponsored. So, for example, if the sponsor is an automotive brand every password that contains the category “car” will display a grid with an image of one of that brand’s vehicles.

Hotcaptcha is a similar, less sophisticated, visual authentication application. It is designed as a captcha alternative, primarily to prevent bot-run spam attacks. The images displayed in the grid are ported from the infamous hotornot.com. Users authenticate through the subjective process of selecting the three images of people that are “hot.”  It’s a fun idea that could be made commercially viable by opening it up to a sponsorship model like Vidoop’s. Above all, it’s better than having to read those wonky numbers.

Dan Neumann