Technology

New policy from the corporate office: If you are working in a public place, like a coffee shop, please scream while typing your login password.

Use a speech to text and they won't be able to hear your keyboard strokes. I know, I'm a genius.

Quite scary considering the accuracy and how many open mics everyone is surrounded by without even realizing it. Not to mention if any content creator types their password while live streaming or recording they could get their accounts stolen.

Obligatory XKCD

Neat, so when my friends are taking about satisfyingly clackety keyboards I can inform them it’s a security hazard.

Not to be a jerk, but is this actually new? I've heard of this being done at least ten years ago...

On another note, one way to beat this (to a degree) would be to use an alternate keyboard like Dvorak (though you could probably code it to be able to detect that based on what's being typed)

This is why I always make sure there are no boffins around before I start typing.

I think I might have achieved security through obscurity. My custom keyboard is a unique shape and almost all the keys are one unit. Not only is it different enough from a traditional keyboard that the neural network probably won't understand it, the function layers I use obscure whether I'm typing a letter at all.

I guess my typos are now a security feature!

I wonder if you need to train it on a specific keyboard before it will work it.

I'd be curious how well this approach translates to multi-lingual keyboard layouts. For english users, perhaps theres another benefit to non-QWERTY layouts (e.g. Colemak or Dvorak) after all? ... and two factor authentication should remain helpful I presume. Especially physical key methods with no audible characters typed (e.g. Yubikey, Titan, etc.)

Can we normalise good but quiet keyboards. Like, I like the tactile feel of using a mechanical, but I hate the sound. Quieter mechanical keyboards aren't a thing but they should be. Now as a security measure if nothing else.

Also Dvorak keyboards I guess

Some laptops like the Framework laptop have fingerprint sensors

Physical Security keys like NitroKeys or YubiKeys are another option

I never learned to touch-type, so my typing style is very different from most people though I can type fast enough for work.

My typing style only uses 3 fingers, and both hands type keys in the middle of the keyboard.

I wonder if this has any effect on accuracy?

Edit: Article states touch-typing can reduce accuracy. Wonder if that's because they type more softly than us tech gorillas who tend to bash on the keys?

I wonder if different switches, keycap profiles, keyboard material ect affect the accuracy?

How good does this work if there's other noise pollution? Like music playing etc?