Techniques for mitigating forgotten password attacks

1. A method for mitigating forgotten password attacks comprising:

collecting public data associated with a user;

analyzing inferences available from the public data;

receiving an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user;

identifying, using at least one computer processor, verification information associated with the forgotten password communication;

determining a level of difficulty of inferring the verification information based on public information associated with the user; and

calculating a level of risk associated with the verification information; wherein the public data associated with the user is collected and inferences are analyzed prior to receiving an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of a forgotten password communication comprises a communication received by an account provider and calculating a level of risk is performed by a system of at least one of: the account provider, a service provider, and a software vendor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of a forgotten password communication comprises a communication received by the user and calculating a level of risk is performed by a system of at least one of: the user, a service provider, and a software vendor.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether a level of risk exceeds a specified threshold; and

performing one or more actions in the event the level of risk exceeds a specified threshold.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more actions comprise at least one of: warning a user, warning an entity requesting verification information, providing a rating of the calculated level of risk, providing an indication of public information used for inferring the verification information, blocking a forgotten password transaction associated with the forgotten password communication, and providing a suggested alternate verification request with a lower level of risk.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting public data comprises scanning social media sites associated with an account of the user to identify public data useful for inferring verification information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein public data useful for inferring verification information includes at least one of: age, birthday, relationship to others, birthplace, education, gender, and anniversary date.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting public data includes at least one of: comments by a user on a user's social media page, comments by others on a user's social media page, postings on a user's social media page, data shared by a user on their social media page, tags associated with multimedia on a user's social media page, and metadata embedded in multimedia on a user's social media page.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein metadata comprises at least one of: date information associated with the multimedia, time information associated with the multimedia, and geolocation data information associated with the multimedia.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting public data comprises:

identifying a relationship between the user and a second user; and

collecting data associated with the user from a social media page associated with the second user.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein public data and inferences are stored in a database.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the indication of a forgotten password communication comprises a communication received by a plug-in to a web enabled application of the user and wherein the plug-in accesses the database to determine the calculated level of risk associated with the verification information.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the plug-in provides the calculated level of risk to the user allowing the user to select more secure forgotten password verification information.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the plug-in provides an indication of public information used for inferring the verification information to the user.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the verification information has not been previously used for analyzing public information for inferences;

collecting additional public data associated with the verification information;

determining a difficulty of inferring the verification information based on additional public information associated with the user; and

revising a calculated a level of risk associated with the verification information.

16. At least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium for storing a computer program of instructions configured to be readable by at least one processor for instructing the at least one processor to execute a computer process for performing the method as recited in claim 1 .

17. An article of manufacture for mitigating forgotten password attacks, the article of manufacture comprising:

at least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium; and

instructions stored on the at least one medium;

wherein the instructions are configured to be readable from the at least one medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate so as to:

collect public data associated with a user;

analyze inferences available from the public data;

receive an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user;

identify verification information associated with the forgotten password communication;

determine a level of difficulty of inferring the verification information based on public information associated with the user; and

calculate a level of risk associated with the verification information; wherein the public data associated with the user is collected and inferences are analyzed prior to receiving an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user.

18. A system for mitigating forgotten password attacks comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to a network; wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

collect public data associated with a user;

analyze inferences available from the public data;

receive an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user;

identify verification information associated with the forgotten password communication;

determine a level of difficulty of inferring the verification information based on public information associated with the user; and

calculate a level of risk associated with the verification information; wherein the public data associated with the user is collected and inferences are analyzed prior to receiving an indication of a forgotten password communication for the user.