Painless migration from passwords to two factor authentication

Abstract-In spite of growing frequency and sophistication of attacks two factor authentication schemes have seen very limited adoption in the US, and passwords remain the single factor of authentication for most bank and brokerage accounts. Clearly the cost benefit analysis is not as strongly in favor of two factor as we might imagine. Upgrading from passwords to a two factor authentication system usually involves a large engineering effort, a discontinuity of user experience and a hard key management problem. In this paper we describe a system to convert a legacy password authentication server into a two factor system. The existing password system is untouched, but is cascaded with a new server that verifies possession of a smartphone device. No alteration, patching or updates to the legacy system is necessary. There are now two alternative authentication paths: one using passwords alone, and a second using passwords and possession of the trusted device. The bank can leave the password authentication path available while users migrate to the two factor scheme. Once migration is complete the passwordonly path can be severed. We have implemented the system and carried out two factor authentication against real accounts at several major banks

An Efficient QR Code Based Web Authentication Scheme

Nowadays, web authentication is the main and important measure which guarantees the information security and data privacy. Web authentication provides the basis of user accessibility and data security. In the last few years, frequent outbreaks in the password databases lead to a main concern in the data security. The default method for the web authentication is password only mechanism. There are many security problems associated with the password only approach. Many users have a tendency to reuse the same password in different websites. So when one password is being compromised, it may lead to the password break of the other websites due to the password reuse. In order to improve the security, Two factor authentication (TFA) is strongly recommended. But despite of this, TFA has not been widely accepted in the web authentication mechanism. Due to the high scale and drastic popularity of the mobile phone and an inbuilt function of the barcode scanning through camera lead to a new two factor authentication method. In this paper, the proposed two factor authentication protocol uses mobile phone with one or more camera as the second factor for the authentication. The proposed TFA in web authentication counter various attacks such as man in the middle attack (MITM), phishing attacks and so on. Here password is the first factor and mobile is used as the second factor for the web authentication. The communication between the mobile phone and the PC is with the help of visible light. Visible light communication has many advantages as compared with other communication mechanisms. There is a less cellular cost in this scheme which indicates the user does not need cellular network or Wi-Fi for the authentication

InfoTech Update, Volume 16, Number 4, July/August 2007

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_news/5023/thumbnail.jp

A Novel Authentication Method Using Multi-Factor Eye Gaze

A method for novel, rapid and robust one-step multi-factor authentication of a user is presented, employing multi-factor eye gaze. The mobile environment presents challenges that render the conventional password model obsolete. The primary goal is to offer an authentication method that competitively replaces the password, while offering improved security and usability. This method and apparatus combine the smooth operation of biometric authentication with the protection of knowledge based authentication to robustly authenticate a user and secure information on a mobile device in a manner that is easily used and requires no external hardware. This work demonstrates a solution comprised of a pupil segmentation algorithm, gaze estimation, and an innovative application that allows a user to authenticate oneself using gaze as the interaction medium

ONE TIME PASSWORDLESS and IP ADDRESS AUTHENTICATION METHOD for WEB APPLICATION

Penelitian yang membahas model autentikasi pengguna, mulai dari autentikasi tradisional menggunakan username dan password hingga metode multi-factor authentication telah sering dilakukan. Namun model autentikasi tersebut masih menggunakan password, dimana manusia memiki keterbatasan untuk mengingat sehingga resiko kehilangan password kerap terjadi. Selain itu pencurian data pada jaringan komputer masih marak dilakukan sehingga perlu pendekatan lain dalam autentikasi pengguna terhadap sistem.Passwordless authentication adalah model autentikasi yang mulai dikenalkan, hanya saja proses implementasinya masih terbatas. Paper ini berusaha meningkatkan metode passwordless dengan tambahan time limit, session, dan ipaddress dalam melakukan autentikasi pengguna.Hasilnya, pengguna tidak perlu membuat dan mengingat password. Pengguna cukup memanfaatkan layanan email untuk proses registrasi dan login, kemudian ip address menjamin bahwa hanya pengguna tersebut yang dapat mengakses layanan website

From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis

Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

Mobile user authentication system (MUAS) for e-commerce applications.

The rapid growth of e-commerce has many associated security concerns. Thus, several studies to develop secure online authentication systems have emerged. Most studies begin with the premise that the intermediate network is the primary point of compromise. In this thesis, we assume that the point of compromise lies within the end-host or browser; this security threat is called the man-in-the-browser (MITB) attack. MITB attacks can bypass security measures of public key infrastructures (PKI), as well as encryption mechanisms for secure socket layers and transport layer security (SSL/TLS) protocol. This thesis focuses on developing a system that can circumvent MITB attacks using a two-phase secure-user authentication system, with phases that include challenge and response generation. The proposed system represents the first step in conducting an online business transaction.The proposed authentication system design contributes to protect the confidentiality of the initiating client by requesting minimal and non-confidential information to bypass the MITB attack and transition the authentication mechanism from the infected browser to a mobile-based system via a challenge/response mechanism. The challenge and response generation process depends on validating the submitted information and ensuring the mobile phone legitimacy. Both phases within the MUAS context mitigate the denial-of-service (DOS) attack via registration information, which includes the client’s mobile number and the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of the client’s mobile phone.This novel authentication scheme circumvents the MITB attack by utilising the legitimate client’s personal mobile phone as a detached platform to generate the challenge response and conduct business transactions. Although the MITB attacker may have taken over the challenge generation phase by failing to satisfy the required security properties, the response generation phase generates a secure response from the registered legitimate mobile phone by employing security attributes from both phases. Thus, the detached challenge- and response generation phases are logically linked