What is Project Abacus?

Google is planning to remove the password security function by the end of the year, deploying what it calls Project Abacus to confirm users’ identities.

Using biometrics, the system creates a trust score based on factors including your location, typing pattern, voice speed and pattern and facial recognition. If the trust score isn’t high enough, the device may then ask for another security authentication like a password.

The rationale behind the plan is to relieve customers of the burden of remembering multiple passwords and pins to unlock various devices and apps.

Financial companies are thought to be keen on the idea and will be testing the Trust API in the coming months. Google already runs Smart Lock, using similar technology, and this new enhancement will use data gathered to continually evolve and make your phone or tablet even more secure every time you login.

If the device determines that somebody else is using it, apps can be placed on lockdown.

Secure logins today tend to involve a two-step identification procedure, with a pin being sent via SMS to accompany a password for a Gmail account, for instance.   

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Read the May 2016 issue of Business Review Europe magazine.