H. Jahankhani, K. Revett, and D. Palmer-Brown (Eds.): ICGeS 2008, CCIS 12, pp. 210–219, 2008. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 A Survey of User Authentication Based on Mouse Dynamics Kenneth Revett 1 , Hamid Jahankhani 2 , Sérgio Tenreiro de Magalhães 3 , and Henrique M.D. Santos 3 1 Harrow School of Computer Science, University of Westminster, London, UK revettk@westminster.ac.uk 2 University of East London Hamid.jahankhani@uel.ac.uk 3 Universidade do Minho Department of Information SystemsCampus de Azurem 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal {psmagalhaes,hsantos} @dsi.uminho.pt Abstract. This work surveys biometric based authentication systems that de- ploy mouse movements. Typically, timing and movement direction, along with clicking actions are used to build a profile of a user, which is then used for au- thentication purposes. Most system relies on a continuous monitoring process, or require the user to interact with a program (such as a game) in order to derive sufficient statistical information regarding their mouse dynamics. In this work, a novel graphical authentication system dubbed Mouse-lock is presented. This system deploys the analogy of a safe, and the password is entered via the mouse in a graphical equivalent of combination lock. The question is whether this ap- proach elicits sufficient discriminatory information from a relatively minimalist degree of interaction from the user. The preliminary results from a study with six subjects indicates, based on FAR/FRR values, that this is a viable approach. Keywords: Accot-Zhai steering law, biometrics, Fitts’ law, Hick’s law, mouse dynamics, mouse-lock. 1 Introduction This paper describes a relatively new approach to behavioral biometrics that relies on the way a user interacts with their computer using a standard mouse. In most graphi- cal applications, the mouse is the method of choice for program interaction. A sub- stantial amount of human computer interaction literature exists which explores how to arrange the graphical user interface (GUI) such that the user’s interaction with the system in maximized with respect to some parameter(s) [1]. One common parameter is the interaction speed – how quickly can a user navigate through the GUI based ap- plication? This is the essence of the field of study in experimental psychology termed interaction ergonomics [2]. For instance, how quickly can a user position the mouse and click on an application icon? If there is a series of menus that must be navigated, what is the best way to arrange them for maximal throughput? These are fundamental questions in computer ergonomics, which has resulted in the formulation of two