Search for Trust: An Analysis and Comparison of CA System Alternatives and Enhancements

The security of the Public Key Infrastructure has been reevaluated in response to Certification Authority (CA) compromise which resulted in the circulation of fraudulent certificates. These rogue certificates can and have been used to execute Man-in-the-Middle attacks and gain access to users’ sensitive information. In wake of these events, there has been a call for change to the extent of either securing the current system or altogether replacing it with an alternative design. This paper will explore the following proposals which have been put forth to replace or improve the CA system with the goal of aiding in the prevention and detection of MITM attacks and improving the trust infrastructure: Convergence, Perspectives, Mutually Endorsed Certification Authority Infrastructure (MECAI), DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE), DNS Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) Resource Records, Public Key Pinning, Sovereign Keys, and Certificate Transparency. Provided are brief descriptions of each proposal, along with an indication of the pros and cons of each system. Following this, a new metric is applied which, according to a set of criteria, ranks each proposal and gives readers an idea of the costs and benefits of implementing the proposed system and the potential strengths and weaknesses of the design. We conclude with recommendations for further research and remark on the proposals with the most potential going forward

Policy issues in interconnecting networks

To support the activities of the Federal Research Coordinating Committee (FRICC) in creating an interconnected set of networks to serve the research community, two workshops were held to address the technical support of policy issues that arise when interconnecting such networks. The workshops addressed the required and feasible technologies and architectures that could be used to satisfy the desired policies for interconnection. The results of the workshop are documented

Making identity assurance and authentication strength work for federated infrastructures

In both higher Research and Education (R&E) as well as in research-/ e-infrastructures (in short: infrastructures), federated access and single sign-on by way of national federations, operated in most cases by NRENs, are used as a means to provide users with access to a variety of services. Whereas in national federations institutional accounts, e.g. provided by a university, are typically used to access services, many infrastructures also accept other sources of identity: provided by \u27\u27community identity providers\u27\u27, social identity providers, or governmental IDs. In order to assess and communicate the quality of identities being used and authentications being performed, so called Level of Assurance (LoA) frameworks are used. Because sophisticated LoA frameworks like NIST 800-63-3, Kantara IAF 1420 or eIDAS regulation are often considered too complex to be used in R&E scenarios, the REFEDS Assurance Suite, a more lightweight approach, has been developed. To select an appropriate assurance level, Service Providers need to weigh risks and potential harms in relation to the kind of service they offer. However, the management of risks is often implicitly assumed and little or no guidance to determine the appropriate assurance level is given. In this paper, first, common LoA frameworks and their relation to risk management are investigated. Following that, their components are compared against the REFEDS Assurance Suite using a graphical representation. The focus of this paper lies in providing guidance and best practices based on example scenarios for both Service Providers to request the appropriate REFEDS assurance level, as well as for Identity Provider operators on how to implement REFEDS assurance components

A distributed authentication architecture and protocol

Većina metoda autentifikacije korisnika oslanjaju se na jedan verifikator koji se pohranjuje na središnjem mjestu unutar informacijskog sustava. Takva pohrana osjetljivih informacija predstavlja jedinstvenu točku ispada iz sigurnosne perspektive. Kompromitacija verifikatora jednog sustava predstavlja izravnu prijetnju korisnikovom digitalnom identitetu. U radu se predlaže raspodijeljeno okruženje za autentifikaciju u kojem ne postoji takva točka ispada. Rad opisuje arhitekturu koja omogućuje raspodijeljenu autentifikaciju korisnika u kojoj više autentifikacijskih poslužitelja sudjeluju u provjeri autentičnosti korisnika. Razmatra se autentifikacijsko okruženje u kojem se proces autentifikacije korisnika raspodjeljuje na više nezavisnih poslužitelja. Svaki poslužitelj samostalno obavlja autentifikaciju korisnika, na primjer tražeći od korisnika da odgovori na izazov kako bi dokazao da je vlasnik digitalnog identiteta. Predložena arhitektura omogućuje svakom poslužitelju da koristi drugi autentifikacijski faktor. Provedena je sigurnosna analiza predložene arhitekture i protokola, čime se dokazuje otpornost sustava od napada odabranih u analizi.Most user authentication methods rely on a single verifier being stored at a central location within the information system. Such information storage presents a single point of compromise from a security perspective. If this system is compromised it poses a direct threat to users’ digital identities if the verifier can be extracted from the system. This paper proposes a distributed authentication environment in which there is no such single point of compromise. We propose an architecture that does not rely on a single verifier to authenticate users, but rather a distributed authentication architecture where several authentication servers are used to authenticate a user. We consider an authentication environment in which the user authentication process is distributed among independent servers. Each server independently performs its own authentication of the user, for example by asking the user to complete a challenge in order to prove his claim to a digital identity. The proposed architecture allows each server to use any authentication factor. We provide a security analysis of the proposed architecture and protocol, which shows they are secure against the attacks chosen in the analysis

Assessing usable security of multifactor authentication

An authentication mechanism is a security service that establishes the difference between authorised and unauthorised users. When used as part of certain website processes such as online banking, it provides users with greater safety and protection against service attacks and intruders. For an e-banking website to be considered effective, it should provide a usable and secure authentication mechanism. Despite existing research on usability and security domains, there is a lack of research on synthesising the contributions of usable security and evaluating multifactor authentication methods. Without understanding the usability and security of authentication mechanisms, the authenticating process is likely to become cumbersome and insecure. This negatively affects a goal of the authentication process, convenience for the user. This thesis sought to investigate the usability and security of multifactor authentication and filled an important gap in the development of authenticating processes. It concentrated on users’ perspectives, which are crucial for the deployment of an authenticating process. To achieve the thesis goal, a systematic series of three studies has been conducted. First, an exploratory study was used to investigate the current state of the art of using multifactor authentication and to evaluate the usability and security of these methods. The study involved a survey of 614 e-banking users, who were selected because they were likely long-term users of online banking and they had two different bank accounts, a Saudi account and a foreign account (most foreign accounts were British). The study indicated that multifactor authentication has been widely adopted in e-banking in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, with high levels of security and trustworthiness as compared to single factor authentication. The second study was a descriptive study of the most common authentication methods. This study aimed to learn more about commonly used methods that were identified in the previous study and sought to propose an appropriate combination of authentication methods to be evaluated in the third study. The third study was an experimental study with 100 users to evaluate the usable security of three different multifactor authentication methods: finger print, secure device and card reader. A web based system was designed specifically for this study to simulate an original UK e-banking website. One of the main contribution of this study was that the system allowed users to choose their preferred authentication method. Moreover, the study contributed to the field of usable security by proposing security evaluation criteria based on users’ awareness of security warnings. The key result obtained indicated that fingerprinting was the most usable and secure method. Additionally, the users’ level of understanding security warnings was very low, as shown by their reaction to the security indicators presented during the experiment

Kintsugi Philosophy for Auditors

This study explores the understanding of audit accounting by looking at the audit process through the art of Kintsugi. This research is empirical research using the interpretivism paradigm and collecting data using the interview method on several auditors and clients who are friends of the researcher and performing document analysis. Negotiation has several key behaviours, including communication, data, and service. The interests of auditors and clients are a part that is united by communication, data, and service. Negotiations between auditors and clients create the impression that gold flows through every existing crack. While auditing brings convenience, it never reaches perfection. The audit process can be seen as a kintsugi process which ultimately produces something more valuable through a purification process. This research complements the understanding of previous research. Namely, the performance of auditors can purify financial statements and even broader organizational settings