British company Intelligent Environments claims that they started the idea of utilizing emojis over traditional PIN numbers. According to them, it is easier for the human brain to remember pictures, plus the intricacy of the emoticons available will make it more difficult for hackers to crash bank accounts.
On their website, Intelligent Environments said, "Traditional PIN = 7,290 unique permutations of four non-repeating numbers vs Emoji Passcode = 3,498,308 million unique permutations of non-repeating emojis, based on a selection size of 44 emojis," the math explaining their claim of improved security.
Managing Director of the company, David Webber, said, "Why can't financial service be fun and innovative?" Furthermore, he noted that their new security system is designed to target teens and young adults in their 20s to early 30s.
Despite Webber saying that his company has not yet patented this idea, thinking it's not patentable, they believe that they were the first ones to have thought of using this modern approach to security - emoji passcodes - and that some banks are already showing their interest in this Emoji Passcode Service.
In a report by BBC, cybersecurity expert Alan Woodward said that the images and the patterns have already been utilized by some companies as a functional alternative to letters and numbers. He added, "I think this is an interesting and potentially valuable step forward."
Tony Buzan, a memory expert, shared his thoughts on this new security measures hype in his interview with Telegraph UK saying, "The Emoji Passcode plays to humans' extraordinary ability to remember pictures, which is anchored in our evolutionary history. We remember more information when it's in pictorial form, that's why the Emoji Passcode is better than traditional PINs."
Intelligent Environments is open to the idea of any bank introducing and implementing emoji passcodes in their security system since the company has not yet patented this idea.
