CyanogenMod OS Debuts ‘Scrambling PIN’ For Additional Security; OnePlus One To Be Available On Nov. 17

Attendees Play A Check-In Game To Win Prizes By Tapping Their NFC-Enabled Android Smartphones — IN PHOTO: Attendees play a check-in game to win prizes by tapping their NFC-enabled Android smartphones at the Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco June 25, 2014. Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage

Touchscreen users across the globe are aware of the most-dreaded disadvantage in manual PIN entry i.e. when a device owner types the log-in PIN, fingerprints are left all over the touchscreen buttons. Hence, it is quite easy for anyone holding the phone to figure the typed-in key combination. Obviously, they cannot understand the key strokes in the order of the PIN. However, with some permutations and combinations, the PIN can be identified. To counter this problem, CyanogenMod OS team has come up with an excellent solution.

CyanogenMod is an open source operating system for devices with Android OS as the foundation. Examples of CyanogenMod powered devices include the well-known OnePlus One and Oppo N1 smartphones, among others. Moving back to the solution to the touchscreen PIN problem, the team working on CyanogenMod OS has come up with a fix that scrambles the digits on the device's keyboard, according to GSM Arena.

Technically, scrambling the digits will ensure that the position of the device owner's fingerprints does not reveal the actual numbers entered by the user. To be precise, every time a user logs into his/her phone, the keyboard scrambles the buttons on the display, so that each time the numbers are positioned in a different location.

The flipside, however, is that device users cannot rely on muscle memory to type down the PIN. Nonetheless, it is a great innovation to amplify the security of the most-used device in everyone's life. Readers should note that this particular scrambling keyboard feature will be part of the proprietary version of the CyanogenMod OS. Therefore, the OnePlus One will receive this update sooner or later. However, there is no information available to ascertain the availability on the open-source version of the OS.

On the other hand, scrambling PIN feature is already part of Xposed module (Xblast Tools). However, this is not a free module and it also requires Xposed module installed on the device. Furthermore, Jailbroken Apple iPhones can use CodeScrambler to make use of the scrambling PIN feature. Plus, CyanogenMod fans should note that, new version of CyanogenMod 12 based on Android v5.0 Lollipop is in the offing.

Speaking of the CyanogenMod powered OnePlus One sale, pre-orders for the One smartphone will be back on Nov. 17 at 11 AM EST. Potential buyers are encouraged to utilise this opportunity to avail the handset with killer features from the company's official website.

Also, check out the Twitter update from CyanogenMod Inc.:

Worry about people catching a glimpse of your PIN code strokes? Check out Scramble PIN Layout feature on Cyanogen OS http://t.co/nqJtPHfhim
— Cyanogen Inc. (@CyanogenInc) November 10, 2014