You Can Send Passwords Securely Through Your Body

Researchers at the University of Washington have finally figured out a way to use a human body to transmit sensitive information such as your passwords and other identification data using signals generated from fingerprint sensors on smartphones and touchpads.

This means you no longer have to worry about being hacked or having your information stolen by unscrupulous cyber criminals. This is because when your bodies become the main transmitters, you no longer need mediums such as Wi-Fi to transfer data.

“Fingerprint sensors have so far been used as an input device. What is cool is that we’ve shown for the first time that fingerprint sensors can be re-purposed to send out information that is confined to the body,” said senior author Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

"Let’s say I want to open a door using an electronic smart lock," said study co-lead author Merhdad Hessar, an electrical engineering doctoral student at the University of Washington. "I can touch the doorknob and touch the fingerprint sensor on my phone and transmit my secret credentials through my body to open the door, without leaking that personal information over the air."

The study, which used 10 subjects, shows that with bodies replacing air as the primary medium of transmission, the signals generated by the fingerprint sensors in your iPhone, would travel through your body to the electronic door lock. Of course, you will need to touch your door lock, otherwise, the signals will not be received.

The system uses signals that are already generated by fingerprint sensors on smartphones and laptop touchpads, which have thus far been used to receive input about the physical characteristics of a user's finger.

"What is cool is that we’ve shown for the first time that fingerprint sensors can be re-purposed to send out information that is confined to the body," study senior author Shyam Gollakota, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, said in a statement.

However, this is clearly a very safe technology, the “on-body” is based on the same safety to the user, because there is no sign in required in the air which will prevent any malicious tings that can intercept.

But, there is a way to “attack” the signal that travels through our body. We may have multiple devices to play simultaneously in our body and they may intercept the signal. If one of them is with malware, for example, smartwatch, this may compromise the security, but the existence of a smartwatch with certain malware capable of intercepting this type of signal, there are many favorable variables so that this could be compromised. However, there is not much to worry in this field, said Iyer.