NSA testing smartphones that can tell who you are by the way you write: Handwriting recongition system The NSA is set to begin using smartphone software that can recognise a person by the way they write.

The software, called Mandrake and developed by Lockheed Martin, verifies a user's identity based on the swiftness and shape of the individual's finger strokes on a touch screen.

Experts say it could be far more reliable than traditional passwords, and it virtually impossible to fake.

'Nobody else has the same strokes,' John Mears, senior fellow for Lockheed IT and Security Solutions, told NextGov.com. 

'People can forge your handwriting in two dimensions, but they couldn't forge it in three or four dimensions.'

Mears explains that in addition to the two dimensions on paper, the third dimension is pressure and the fourth is time.

'The most advanced handwriting-type authentication tracks you in four dimensions,' he told NextGov.

'We've done work with the NSA for secure gesture authentication as a technique for using smartphones,' Mears said. 'They are actually able to use it.'

The ˜Secure Gesture™ capability was first revealed in 2013.

The firm says it is a 'defense-grade secure workspace solution for iOS and Android devices that keeps all corporate email, browsing, documents and applications encrypted, contained, and under IT control no matter who owns the device.

'It will enable smartphone and tablet users to authenticate into Fixmo SafeZone with a simple, user-defined gesture, which has been proven to be more secure and far easier to use than a 14-character complex, randomly generated password.'

The system potentially could be used for emergency responders who often don't have the time or ability to get online for reporting purposes NextGov.com reports.