A Decentralised Digital Identity Architecture

Current architectures to validate, certify, and manage identity are based on centralised, top-down approaches that rely on trusted authorities and third-party operators. We approach the problem of digital identity starting from a human rights perspective, with a primary focus on identity systems in the developed world. We assert that individual persons must be allowed to manage their personal information in a multitude of different ways in different contexts and that to do so, each individual must be able to create multiple unrelated identities. Therefore, we first define a set of fundamental constraints that digital identity systems must satisfy to preserve and promote privacy as required for individual autonomy. With these constraints in mind, we then propose a decentralised, standards-based approach, using a combination of distributed ledger technology and thoughtful regulation, to facilitate many-to-many relationships among providers of key services. Our proposal for digital identity differs from others in its approach to trust in that we do not seek to bind credentials to each other or to a mutually trusted authority to achieve strong non-transferability. Because the system does not implicitly encourage its users to maintain a single aggregated identity that can potentially be constrained or reconstructed against their interests, individuals and organisations are free to embrace the system and share in its benefits.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

Development of a typing behaviour recognition mechanism on Android

This paper proposes a biometric authentication system which use password based and behavioural traits (typing behaviours) authentication technology to establish user’s identity on a mobile phone. The proposed system can work on the latest smart phone platform. It uses mobile devices to capture user’s keystroke data and transmit it to web server. The authentication engine will establish if a user is genuine or fraudulent. In addition, a multiplier of the standard deviation “α” has been defined which aims to achieve the balance between security and usability. Experimental results indicate that the developed authentication system is highly reliable and very secure with an equal error rate is below 7.5%

BRAILLE OTP TOKEN

The present disclosure relates to a system and a method of providing secured authentication to visually impaired users. The secured authentication is provided by connecting a braille token device (120) with a user mobile device (110) and receiving sensitive information in the braille token device read from Short Mailing Service (SMS) received in the user mobile device. To receive the sensitive information, the braille token device includes a driver program that may match a format of sensitive information stored in the braille token device with the format of the sensitive information received in the SMS of the user mobile device. If the format matches, the braille token device reads the sensitive information from the SMS. The proposed techniques may help the users to authenticate payment transactions in a secured wa

Strong authentication based on mobile application

The user authentication in online services has evolved over time from the old username and password-based approaches to current strong authentication methodologies. Especially, the smartphone app has become one of the most important forms to perform the authentication. This thesis describes various authentication methods used previously and discusses about possible factors that generated the demand for the current strong authentication approach. We present the concepts and architectures of mobile application based authentication systems. Furthermore, we take closer look into the security of the mobile application based authentication approach. Mobile apps have various attack vectors that need to be taken under consideration when designing an authentication system. Fortunately, various generic software protection mechanisms have been developed during the last decades. We discuss how these mechanisms can be utilized in mobile app environment and in the authentication context. The main idea of this thesis is to gather relevant information about the authentication history and to be able to build a view of strong authentication evolution. This history and the aspects of the evolution are used to state hypothesis about the future research and development. We predict that the authentication systems in the future may be based on a holistic view of the behavioral patterns and physical properties of the user. Machine learning may be used in the future to implement an autonomous authentication concept that enables users to be authenticated with minimal physical or cognitive effort

NFC Security Solution for Web Applications

Töö eesmärgiks on võrrelda erinevaid eksisteerivaid veebirakenduste turvalahendusi, analüüsida NFC sobivust turvalahenduste loomiseks ning pakkuda välja uus NFC autentimise ja signeerimise lahendus läbi Google Cloud Messaging teenuse ja NFC Java Card’i. Autori pakutud lahendus võimaldab kasutajal ennast autentida ja signeerida läbi NFC mobiiliseadme ja NFC Java Card’i, nõudmata kasutajalt eraldi kaardilugejat. Antud lahendust on võimalik kasutada kui ühtset kasutajatuvastamise viisi erinevatele rakendustele, ilma lisaarenduseta.This thesis compares existing and possible security solutions for web applications, analyses NFC compatibility for security solutions and proposes a new NFC authentication and signing solution using Google Cloud Messaging service and NFC Java Card. This new proposed solution enables authentication and signing via NFC enabled mobile phone and NFC Java Card without any additional readers or efforts to be made. This smart card solution can be used within multiple applications and gives the possibility to use same authentication solution within different applications

Strong Electronic Identification: Survey & Scenario Planning

The deployment of more high-risk services such as online banking and government services on the Internet has meant that the need and demand for strong electronic identity is bigger today more than ever. Different stakeholders have different reasons for moving their services to the Internet, including cost savings, being closer to the customer or citizen, increasing volume and value of services among others. This means that traditional online identification schemes based on self-asserted identities are no longer sufficient to cope with the required level of assurance demanded by these services. Therefore, strong electronic identification methods that utilize identifiers rooted in real world identities must be provided to be used by customers and citizens alike on the Internet. This thesis focuses on studying state-of-the-art methods for providing reliable and mass market strong electronic identity in the world today. It looks at concrete real-world examples that enable real world identities to be transferred and used in the virtual world of the Internet. The thesis identifies crucial factors that determine what constitutes a strong electronic identity solution and through these factors evaluates and compares the example solutions surveyed in the thesis. As the Internet become more pervasive in our lives; mobile devices are becoming the primary devices for communication and accessing Internet services. This has thus, raised the question of what sort of strong electronic identity solutions could be implemented and how such solutions could adapt to the future. To help to understand the possible alternate futures, a scenario planning and analysis method was used to develop a series of scenarios from underlying key economic, political, technological and social trends and uncertainties. The resulting three future scenarios indicate how the future of strong electronic identity will shape up with the aim of helping stakeholders contemplate the future and develop policies and strategies to better position themselves for the future

Strong Electronic Identification: Survey & Scenario Planning

The deployment of more high-risk services such as online banking and government services on the Internet has meant that the need and demand for strong electronic identity is bigger today more than ever. Different stakeholders have different reasons for moving their services to the Internet, including cost savings, being closer to the customer or citizen, increasing volume and value of services among others. This means that traditional online identification schemes based on self-asserted identities are no longer sufficient to cope with the required level of assurance demanded by these services. Therefore, strong electronic identification methods that utilize identifiers rooted in real world identities must be provided to be used by customers and citizens alike on the Internet. This thesis focuses on studying state-of-the-art methods for providing reliable and mass market strong electronic identity in the world today. It looks at concrete real-world examples that enable real world identities to be transferred and used in the virtual world of the Internet. The thesis identifies crucial factors that determine what constitutes a strong electronic identity solution and through these factors evaluates and compares the example solutions surveyed in the thesis. As the Internet become more pervasive in our lives; mobile devices are becoming the primary devices for communication and accessing Internet services. This has thus, raised the question of what sort of strong electronic identity solutions could be implemented and how such solutions could adapt to the future. To help to understand the possible alternate futures, a scenario planning and analysis method was used to develop a series of scenarios from underlying key economic, political, technological and social trends and uncertainties. The resulting three future scenarios indicate how the future of strong electronic identity will shape up with the aim of helping stakeholders contemplate the future and develop policies and strategies to better position themselves for the future

An assessment of the usability of biometric signature systems using the human-biometric sensor interaction model’

Signature biometrics is a widely used form of user authentication. As a behavioural biometric, samples have inherent inconsistencies which must be accounted for within an automated system. Performance deterioration of a tuned biometric software system may be caused by an interaction error with a biometric capture device, however, using conventional error metrics, system and user interaction errors are combined, thereby masking the contribution by each element. In this paper we explore the application of the Human-Biometric Sensor Interaction (HBSI) model to signature as an exemplar of a behavioural biometric. Using observational data collected from a range of subjects, our study shows that usability issues can be identified specific to individual capture device technologies. While most interactions are successful, a range of common interaction errors need to be mitigated by design to reduce overall error rates

The State of the Electronic Identity Market: Technologies, Infrastructure, Services and Policies

Authenticating onto systems, connecting to mobile networks and providing identity data to access services is common ground for most EU citizens, however what is disruptive is that digital technologies fundamentally alter and upset the ways identity is managed, by people, companies and governments. Technological progress in cryptography, identity systems design, smart card design and mobile phone authentication have been developed as a convenient and reliable answer to the need for authentication. Yet, these advances ar enot sufficient to satisfy the needs across people's many spheres of activity: work, leisure, health, social activities nor have they been used to enable cross-border service implementation in the Single Digital Market, or to ensure trust in cross border eCommerce. The study findings assert that the potentially great added value of eID technologies in enabling the Digital Economy has not yet been fulfilled, and fresh efforts are needed to build identification and authentication systems that people can live with, trust and use. The study finds that usability, minimum disclosure and portability, essential features of future systems, are at the margin of the market and cross-country, cross-sector eID systems for business and public service are only in their infancy. This report joins up the dots, and provides significant exploratory evidence of the potential of eID for the Single Digital Market. A clear understanding of this market is crucial for policy action on identification and authentication, eSignature and interoperability.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ