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Way easier, just have a set of 9 icons (flower, sun, etc) shown after every pin entry. Your "true" icon will proceed, all other icons will trigger duress and proceed.


Way easier, just have a set of 9 icons (flower, sun, etc) shown after every pin entry. Your "true" icon will proceed, all other icons will trigger duress and proceed.

This is familiar.

I had a bank that, when you set up your PIN, required you to also pick an icon. There was a flower, and a cat, and a dog, and some other generic pictures.

When you put your card in the ATM and entered your PIN, you also had to pick the right icon.

I wonder if this was the start of a duress system the bank was setting up. The bank ended up getting eaten by another bank and then another bank, and the icon selection system went away.


Did MSN/Microsoft maybe do this many years ago?

For some reason I don't associate it with a bank (they have a personal phrase they include in official messages), but do with one of the SSO accounts I had, and feel pretty confident it wasn't Google.

Maybe Yahoo?


The pictures are to prevent account compromise via keylogger. Even if they get your login and password, they can't get into the account.


This is brilliant. Can you offer any more insight or background to this? Is there a name for this technique?


No, it is an obvious solution to anyone who wants to solve the problem, and have never seen this in the wild (probably because I live in a relatively safe country where you don't have to fear to get mugged at an ATM).

EDIT: This should be coupled with a "secret" icon that is shown (or a specific order of the 9 icons you have to chose from) to prevent MITM/Phishing attacks. If you realize the icon/order is not the one you are used to, you are being phished.


Wouldn't people just wait till you step away from the ATM then?




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