An academic study set out to prove whether it’s better to protect your Android phone with a PIN or a swipe pattern. The answer is PIN. At least when it comes to proximity attacks, namely someone lurking about trying to guess your PIN or unlock pattern.
The study (PDF), published Friday by researchers at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, found a lurker spotting a single observation of a user unlocking their Android phone using a graphical pattern unlock (swipe pattern) were able to capture the pattern 64 percent of the time. If observed twice, the same person could repeat the pattern with 80 percent accuracy.
