UK researchers have come up with a simple but clever way of establishing a secure Bluetooth connection that doesn’t require the use of a PIN and only looks a little bit silly, reports New Scientist.
To create a secure, encrypted, connection two devices have to share some data – be it a PIN or a pass phrase. The need to share data means that the transaction could be vulnerable to a snooper – even something as simple as looking over your shoulder while you enter your PIN could give enough information to crack the connection.
The new technique makes use of the motion sensors built in to some handsets – only the Nokia N95 has been tested so far, but several new phones are equipped with them, including the Nokia 5500 and Apple’s iPhone.
Rather than sharing a code number or password, you just pick up both phones in the same hand and give the a good shake.
Both phones will sense the same pattern of movement and vibration, and they can use this shared data to establish the connection. Tests have shown that it is virtually impossible to shake along ‘in time’ with another phone unless both are held together.
It’s still at the proof-of-concept stage, and will only work on phones with motion sensors – although, as one Slashdot comment noted, it might be possible to do something similar by speaking into both devices at the same time to provide a shared voice print.
This YouTube video shows the technique in action.
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