Security at UTS
Posted by Michael Dale on Tue, 05 Apr 2005 8:46 PMMost of the people doing an IT course at UTS get 24 hours a day access to the building plus access to certain rooms.
We are each assigned a pin number that gives us this access. To enter the building you need to type this pin into a special key pad.
Now a few of us a uni decided we should test it out. The system works pretty well and provides good security.
What happens is you press a button on the key pad and all the numbers randomize. You then type in your pin. So each time you enter your pin the placement of the numbers is in a different location. This means people watching you cannot tell what numbers you have pressed. The numbers are also only visible at a certain angle and distance, meaning it is very hard to look over someone’s shoulder without them noticing.
I think it is a pretty cool little system. Here is a picture (argh animated gif!) of what it looks like:
Your pin number doesn't happen to be 123456? :P
That's a nifty system.
It would have been smarter (and more confusing) if the numbers changed every time you pressed a button :)
"a few of us a uni decided we should test it out"
More like "I" wanted to check it out and you guys wanted to laugh at me every time I typed the code :)
Haha, that'd confuse me to no end! I couldn't get over the fact that the numbers would have changed position... :P