Your next IT authentication process might be close at hand — your mouse.
According to Computerworld U.S., a cybersecurity researcher at defence contractor Raytheon has been awarded a patent for a biometric pressure grip that describes how a mouse can be used to authenticate someone.
The patent owner, Glenn Kaufman, told the Web site that a pressure sensitive mouse “is a lot harder to defeat” than current authorization technologies like fingerprint or retina scanners because it works from a neurological pattern, as opposed to a physical pattern, such as a facial scan. The way people hold a mouse, along with the amount of pressure they apply, is unique.
“It’s not just how much pressure you exert on the mouse itself, but it’s also the x-y coordinates of your position,” Kaufman said.
He got the idea from reading about a pressure sensitive grip used to authenticate the legitimate user of a handgun.
Raytheon has no immediate plans to commercialize the patent, although with organizations increasingly worried about losing data to internal theft that could change.