Pico is a research project to liberate computer users from the inconvenience and insecurity of passwords. The primary design directive is: you won't have to remember any secrets to authenticate.
The inadequacy of passwords is often noted and many researchers have attempted to provide replacements; yet we still use more passwords today than we ever did. But if you could afford total freedom to redesign the world and do things right, what would you produce instead of passwords? Pico is a clean-slate design, free from compatibility shackles: we won't presume to displace passwords overnight but we want to have a good solution ready for the day that people (and businesses) really can't stand passwords any more.
Technically, we move from "something you know" (dozens of passwords) to "something you have" (crypto gadgets that you wear). We address common problems of existing authentication tokens, such as having to have a different token for each verifier or having to remember further meta-secrets to unlock the tokens. More importantly, we base our development cycle on a user-driven quick prototyping philosophy: it has to be more convenient than passwords for non-geeks.
In 2012 the European Research Council of the EU awarded me a generous grant to develop Pico. Thanks to them I am now assembling an interdisciplinary team that will eventually comprise several post-doctoral researchers and graduate students, including members with expertise in interaction design, experimental psychology and embedded hardware, besides computer security. The project is hosted at the Computer Security Group of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. The intellectual property of all work developed under the project will be released openly and will not be patented.
Would you like to be part of the élite team that will develop, deploy and iteratively redesign a working version of Pico? Then go to the bottom of this page and get in touch! I am looking for applicants right now.
I discussed my ideas about Pico with several audiences, on at least the following occasions. Check them out for background on the project.
I am looking for exceptionally talented PhD-grade research
associates from various backgrounds who want to make a dent in the
universe. If you want to be part of the team that will make Pico a
reality, get in touch with me (email frank dot stajano minus
minus picopage at cl dot cam dot ac dot uk), even if you don't
exactly match one of the currently published profiles. I will also
consider pre-PhD applications for a research assistant post from
outstanding applicants, as well as graduate student positions for
MPhil or PhD.
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