Google buys sound-based security startup for louder logins

Google wants its security to be wired for sound. The search giant has snapped up startup SlickLogin, which verifies your identity and helps you swap your password for sound.

The SlickLogin team says they're joining Google because the search giant "shares our core beliefs that logging in should be easy instead of frustrating, and authentication should be effective without getting in the way." They promise that Google is "working on some great ideas that will make the internet safer for everyone."

Sadly, SlickLogin doesn't involve you saying your name, barking like a dog, or making a noise that sounds nothing like a mockingjay to confirm your identity. Instead, when using SlickLogin to login to an account, your computer plays a barely audible noise that the app on your phone hears and responds to.

The technology can be used to replace a password or as part of a two-step login process -- which, again, sadly, doesn't mean singing Craig David and Artful Dodger's 1999 no. 2 hit Re-Rewind, but instead means having extra means of authenticating your identity on top of your password. Current examples of two-step logins include a code texted to your phone when you login to Facebook or Gmail.

SlickLogin hails from Israel, which is increasingly proving to be one of the hottest parts of the world for start-ups, along with Silicon Valley in the USA and London's Silicon Roundabout.

Neither side has revealed how much Google ponied up for the sound-based security startup. Recent deals for Google include offloading loss-making Motorola, while also buying home automation company Nest.

Last week Google's boss of mergers and acquisitions said that with regard to snapping up other companies, the Big G has plans for more "big bets" and moonshot thinking."