Android into a future without a password with Project Abacus

Google provided a new update on the evolution of the Project Abacus, a system that allows you to make the login operations without using step. After a long period of development and testing, the system could be supplemented by Android developers, as of end of year.

Google has recently returned to take stock of Project Abacus, announced for the first time at the Google I/O 2015, thanks to which, in the future, user name and password to unlock the device and have access to the Android app may be the completely superfluous. These elements could be replaced by a more practical login system based on the monitoring of a series of parameters that identify univocally the user.

A technology that, on paper, could replace even on two-factor based safety systems (eg. The numeric code sent via SMS or email) and be applicable to app dedicated to the management of activities in which the appearance security is particularly acute (think of the app for banking and financial services).

Project Abacus associates unlocking the smartphone and log in to the so-called verification ” Trust Score “, or an aggregate score determined using a variety of factors: by typing schemes usually followed by the user, the detected location, to get to other biometric parameters, as the diagrams that trace the speed and pitch of the voice or the algorithms for face recognition.

The safety systems based on individual factors are not unusual – Google, for example, has already implemented the ” Smart Lock ” function that provides for the automatic release of the device when the same is in a place deemed safe or is connected to a Bluetooth device considered reliable – to be unusual is the combination of various factors, constantly carried out in the background monitoring to detect them using the integrated sensors in smartphones and the determination of the overall Trust Score.

The Trusted Score, in essence, expressed with a numerical score as the system is certain in assuming that the user who accesses it is indeed who he claims to be. One of the interesting aspects concerns the possibility of providing Trusted Score more or less high for access to different types of apps: for example, an app for the use of banking services may require a higher Trusted Score compared to that required by a game.

Latest Project Abacus evolutionary step pass through the creation of ” Trust API ” that, in the future, will be supplemented by Android app developers. Before reaching this goal, in any case, you will need to complete additional testing that will take place in collaboration with several major financial institutions from the month of June.

If the test phase will have a positive outcome, the Trust API may be available from the end of year for all Android developers interested, confirms Dan Kaufman, Division Manager ATAP (Google Advanced Technologies and Projects) which brought forth the Project Abacus development.

An interesting project, not only because it makes it easier to access with your smartphone (on reflection, to this end, may be enough of a fingerprint sensor, which is widespread in the mobile), but also because it introduces an additional layer of security at the level of app. For example, developers could integrate Trust API to block access to the content of each app in the presence of an unauthorized access to the smartphone.