Security and usability in a hybrid property based graphical authentication system

Alphanumeric text and PINs continue to be the dominant authentication methods in spite of the numerous concerns by security researchers of their inability to properly address usability and security flaws and to effectively combine usability and security. These flaws have, however, contributed to the growing research interest in the development and use of graphical authentication systems as alternatives to text based systems. Graphical passwords or graphical authentication systems are password systems that use images rather than characters or numbersin user authentication. The picture superiority effect, a belief that humans are better able to memorise images than text, has very much influenced the proliferation of and support for graphical authentication systems. In spite of their growing acceptance, however, empirical studies have shown that graphical authentication systems have also inherited some of the flaws of text based passwords. Theseflaws include predictability, vulnerability to observational attacks and the inability of systems to efficiently combine security with usability. Hence there is a continued quest among usable security researchers to find that hypothetical system that has both strong usability and strong security. In this research, a novel concept for hybrid graphical authentication systems is developed. This consists of a class of systems that are called ‘property based authentication systems’ which adopt the use of image properties for user authentication, rather than specific images as used in existing systems. Image properties are specified contents of images which gives the image a set of characteristics. Several implementations of these systems have been developed and evaluated. Significant empirical performance studies have been conducted to evaluate these systems in terms of usability and security. The usability evaluations conducted evaluate thesystems in terms effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction, while security evaluations measure their susceptibility to common attacks. The results from these studies suggests that property based systems have better usability and security when compared to commonly known and well researched graphical authentication systems

CommentaryExamination of young people’s attitudes towards information technology innovations

Young people’s attitude towards entrepreneurship contributes tremendously to the rapid increase in innovation. Income and social economic status of people also have strong effect on innovation because in developing countries, stronger payment ability and higher income level enables more people to spend more on a particular product. In such situations, consumer’s level of income has strong effects on attitudes towards innovation. The success of IT innovation therefore depends on individual attitudes. Earlier experience is regarded as motivating factor in identifying individual’s attitudes towards innovation since past experience of using similar technologies contribute tremendously to favourable attitudes towards it. Such experience as computer or internet use experience strongly influence usage attitudes of a specific system due to perceived durability or ease of use. Other factors that had significant influence on innovation and the ability of individuals to accept changes include gender, age and the mechanical ability of end-users.Keywords: Information technology, innovations, entrepreneurship, computer, internet International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(4): 497 - 499, 201

Development of a computer based learning system for teaching and assessing mathematics

Computer based learning (CBL) refers to the use of computers as a key component of the educational environment This computer based-learning for teaching and accessing mathematics is a software package developed using Java Programming Language and Java Server Page (JSP). It acts as a web application using CMS School Tomcat Web server. The software is user friendly in terms of interaction and offers an important feature of personalized account, tracking each student’s progress through material and Assessments.Keywords: Computer, learning system, mathematics, soft ware International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(2): 196-205, 201