Authentication Practices from Passwords to Biometrics

User authentication is a difficulty for every system providing safe access to precious, private information, or personalized services. It is a continual problem, particularly with mobile and handheld devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). User authentication is the primary line of defence for a handheld device that comes into the hands of an unauthorized individual. Password or Personal Identification Number (PIN) based authentication is the leading mechanism for verifying the identity of actual device users but this method has been shown to have considerable drawbacks. For example, users tend to pick PIN or passwords that can be easily guessed. On the other hand, if a password is hard to guess, then it is often hard to remember. To address this problem in handheld devices, some researchers have developed comparatively more secure, affordable and memorable authentication schemes based on graphical assistance, images and audio. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive survey and analysis of such existing user authentication schemes for mobile and handheld devices. The complete analysis of these schemes in term of usability and security are also discussed in this paper. This paper will be useful for information security researchers and practitioners who are interested in finding an alternative to password based authentication schemes.

2019

Smart Cell phones are evolving very rapidly making manufacturers introduce various features in small devices and become incredibly important in every aspect of our life nowadays as well as come to be powerful in terms of storage, cpu and installing numerous applications. Biometric technology that differentiate physical or behavioral characteristics like fingerprint sensor to provide identification (who are you?) and authentication (who he/she claims to be), high resolution camera, iris scan provides developers various tools to combine them into one application. Mobile banking is very famous these days because of large development in smartphone industry. To make secure payments through mobile phones Biometrics like FP identification are considered as one of the most effective authentication for everyone. The present security issues surround the loss of personal information through the pilferage of the cell phone. Hence, it is necessary that the biometric identification templates are ...

IEEE Xplore, 2023

With the widespread adoption of mobile devices in our daily lives, the need for robust and secure authentication systems has become paramount. This paper presents the design and development of a novel authentication system specifically tailored for mobile devices. Our system addresses the challenges posed by the vulnerabilities and limitations inherent in mobile platforms while ensuring high security and efficiency. Through an extensive analysis of existing authentication methods, we propose a novel approach that combines multi-factor authentication and biometrics to enhance security. We provide implementation details, including the integration of biometric techniques such as fingerprint recognition and facial recognition, and evaluate the system's performance through rigorous testing. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution in providing a secure and efficient authentication mechanism for mobile devices.

International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2012

With hundreds of millions using computers and mobile devices all over the globe, these devices have an established position in modern society. Nevertheless, most of these devices use weak authentication techniques with passwords and PINs which can be easily hacked. Thus, stronger identification is needed to ensure data security and privacy. In this paper, we will explain the employment of biometrics to computer and mobile platforms. In addition, the possibility of using keystroke and mouse dynamics for computer authentication is being checked. Finally, we propose an authentication scheme for smart phones that shows positive results.

International Journal of Communication, 2018

A biometric security model for mobile applications is defined. It is a low-complexity design with a security architecture including 2 biometric traits (fingerprint and iris). The fingerprint processing for feature generation is optimized on the mobile device, but the iris template optimization is performed on server. In both cases, the feature space is transformed to provide a suitable trade-off performance vs. complexity for a properly reduced dimensionality. The matching is based on a target-vs.-non-target classification in order to meet the requirements of an identification process in which only a target identity must be recognized. The target identity belongs to the mobile device owner.

Mobile Information Systems

Smartphones are the most popular and widespread personal devices. Apart from their conventional use, that is, calling and texting, they have also been used to perform multiple security sensitive activities, such as online banking and shopping, social networking, taking pictures, and e-mailing. On a positive side, smartphones have improved the quality of life by providing multiple services that users desire, for example, anytime-anywhere computing. However, on the other side, they also pose security and privacy threats to the users’ stored data. User authentication is the first line of defense to prevent unauthorized access to the smartphone. Several authentication schemes have been proposed over the years; however, their presentation might be perplexing to the new researchers to this domain, under the shade of several buzzwords, for example, active, continuous, implicit, static, and transparent, being introduced in academic papers without comprehensive description. Moreover, most of...

The threat of malware and phishing is engulfing the web. It is expected to be an even greater threat in the mobile context, as battery power limitations and the lack of screen real estate of handsets tie the hands of anti-virus methods and user messaging methods, and people's continuous handset connectivity makes them more vulnerable to abuse. This paper argues that biometric methods, such as fingerprinting methods, could address a large part of this towering threat -but only if properly architected. We describe an architecture that is practically attainable and which would address the problem in a meaningful way, and argue that this is a promising direction -both in terms of security and usability.

Mobile Multimedia/Image Processing, Security, and Applications 2010, 2010

The use of mobile communication devices with advance sensors is growing rapidly. These sensors are enabling functions such as Image capture, Location applications, and Biometric authentication such as Fingerprint verification and Face & Handwritten signature recognition. Such ubiquitous devices are essential tools in today's global economic activities enabling anywhere-anytime financial and business transactions. Cryptographic functions and biometric-based authentication can enhance the security and confidentiality of mobile transactions. Using Biometric template security techniques in real-time biometric-based authentication are key factors for successful identity verification solutions, but are venerable to determined attacks by both fraudulent software and hardware. The EU-funded SecurePhone project has designed and implemented a multimodal biometric user authentication system on a prototype mobile communication device. However, various implementations of this project have resulted in long verification times or reduced accuracy and/or security. This paper proposes to use built-in-self-test techniques to ensure no tampering has taken place on the verification process prior to performing the actual biometric authentication. These techniques utilises the user personal identification number as a seed to generate a unique signature. This signature is then used to test the integrity of the verification process. Also, this study proposes the use of a combination of biometric modalities to provide application specific authentication in a secure environment, thus achieving optimum security level with effective processing time. I.e. to ensure that the necessary authentication steps and algorithms running on the mobile device application processor can not be undermined or modified by an imposter to get unauthorized access to the secure system.

International Journal of Computer Applications, 2012

Mobile communication has become a serious business tool nowadays. Mobile devices are the major platform for the users to transfer and exchange diverse data for communication. These devices are variably used for applications like banking, personal digital assistance, remote working, m-commerce, internet access, entertainment and medical usage. However people are still hesitant to use mobile devices because of its security issue. It is necessary to provide a reliable and easy to use method for securing these mobile devices against unauthorized access and diverse attacks. It is preferred to apply biometrics for the security of mobile devices and improve reliability over wireless services. This paper deals with various threats and vulnerabilities that affect the mobile devices and also it discusses how biometrics can be a solution to the mobile devices ensuring security.

2017

Paper presented at Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), 3 September 2017, Barcelona, Spain