What's Working in Washington,
on Federal News Radio 1500 AM

First aired on Thursday, May 25, 2017. The program is also available on Federal News Radio.
By Candice Pye

“One of the things musicians can do is recognize each other by the way they play,” says Bethann Rome, co-founder of Intensity Analytics. “You can hear a guitar riff and you can say—‘ah! I know who that is’.” The same way playing identical notes can sound different from one musician to the next because of personal style, new technology can spot the pacing and patterns of our typing.

The key identification technology developed by Rome and the Intensity Analytics team is derived from the idea that if a human can listen and recognize, then a computer should be able to be programmed to do the same thing. By picking up on user behavior cues, Intensity Analytics’ technologies can make a solid determination and prevent identity theft. As America begins to feel the heavy costs of lacking cybersecurity in the wake of hacks such as the incident with Yahoo, fighting identity theft is a hot topic. These incidents remind the population that their identities could be compromised if the companies they give their information to aren’t careful. Intensity Analytics uses key stroke recognition technology as the solution.

“Well over half of all data breaches can be traced back to stolen credentials, yet people continue to choose passwords that are common, weak, easy to remember... so we targeted our solution exactly to that problem. It recognizes you by the way that you behave,” Rome told What’s Working in Washington. “By teaching a computer to listen and recognize those human hallmarks, we can recognize you and, therefore, we can authenticate you.” Technology like that of Intensity Analytics does not require the user to do anything differently or submit any more information with the computer.

It can also be an advantage to the Federal government, which is why Intensity Analytics’ DC location is beneficial, Rome says. The keystroke technology is used widely in the National Security establishment to ensure the safeguarding of private information. The simple solution is easy to deploy.

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