Visual passwords: Cure-all or snake-oil?

„Dog-boat-flower-car‟ could be your password in the near future; and all you will have to do is to point at the corresponding pictures amongst a challenge group of displayed images in order to read your e-mail, place a mobile call or withdraw money at an ATM. This is an example of the use of the so-called “visual password” – an alternative to the traditional password whereby users have to recognize a set of assigned images rather than recall an alphanumeric string to gain access to a secure system. A number of visual passwords are already available in the marketplace, especially for PDAs, and the field is exhibiting signs of increasing popularity. Given this upsurge of interest we need to pose the question: “Are these passwords the panacea they are often claimed to be?” To answer this question we will review the current state of the art, and give our opinion of the viability and potential of the graphical alternative to the humble and much-maligned password