Language-independent gender identification through keystroke analysis. (13th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tsimperidis, Ioannis; Katos, Vasilios; Clarke, Nathan
• Is Part Of: Information and computer security. Volume 23:Number 3(2015)
• Page Start: 286
• Page End: 301
• Publication Date: 2015-07-13
• Subjects: Computer security -- Management -- Periodicals; Computer networks -- Security measures -- Periodicals; Data protection -- Management -- Periodicals; 658.47
• DOI: 10.1108/ICS-05-2014-0032
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2056-4961

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title> <p> – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of identifying the gender of an author by measuring the keystroke duration when typing a message. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title> <p> – Three classifiers were constructed and tested. The authors empirically evaluated the effectiveness of the classifiers by using empirical data. The authors used primary data as well as a publicly available dataset containing keystrokes from a different language to validate the language independence assumption. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title> <p> – The results of this paper indicate that it is possible to identify the gender of an author by analyzing keystroke durations with a probability of success in the region of 70 per cent. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Research limitations/implications</title> <p> – The proposed approach was validated with a limited number of participants and languages, yet the statistical tests show the significance of the results. However, this approach will be further tested with other languages. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</title> <p> – Having the ability to identify the gender of an author of a certain piece of text has value in digital forensics, as the proposed method will be a source of circumstantial evidence for "putting fingers on keyboard" and for arbitrating cases where the true origin of a message needs to be identified. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Social implications</title> <p> – If the proposed method is included as part of a text-composing system (such as e-mail, and instant messaging applications), it could increase trust toward the applications that use it and may also work as a deterrent for crimes involving forgery. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title> <p> – The proposed approach combines and adapts techniques from the domains of biometric authentication and data classification.</p> </sec> </abstract>