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<p class=MsoNormal>Greetings,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>I’m writing to let you know about our new, experimental
OpenID Provider at <a href="http://www.inkblotpassword.com">http://www.inkblotpassword.com</a>.
Our implementation has a twist: we show you a series of inkblot images (similar
to a Rorschach test) to help you create and, later, remember your password.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>I’m part of a small group at Microsoft Research that does
work in the security and distributed systems space. A few years ago, one
of our interns (Adam Stubblefield, now at Johns Hopkins) developed the idea of
using inkblot images for password prompting. He spent the summer doing a
user study that showed that inkblots made it much easier for users to remember very
strong passwords. The goal is to reduce the use of weak passwords.
You can read about the user study at <a
href="ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2004-85.pdf">ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2004-85.pdf</a>.
(There’s also a summary of the research at <a
href="http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=417">http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=417</a>.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Last month, we decided to whip up an OpenID implementation
of Adam’s inkblot generator. Right now it’s pretty bare-bones,
but if people find it useful, we’d be open to suggestions on what to
improve.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Jeremy Elson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>MSR<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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