TDAS: a touch dynamics based multi-factor authentication solution for mobile devices
International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications
ISSN: 1742-7371
Article publication date: 4 April 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The use of mobile devices in handling our daily activities that involve the storage or access of sensitive data (e.g. on-line banking, paperless prescription services, etc.) is becoming very common. These mobile electronic services typically use a knowledge-based authentication method to authenticate a user (claimed identity). However, this authentication method is vulnerable to several security attacks. To counter the attacks and to make the authentication process more secure, this paper aims to investigate the use of touch dynamics biometrics in conjunction with a personal identification number (PIN)-based authentication method, and demonstrate its benefits in terms of strengthening the security of authentication services for mobile devices.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation has made use of three light-weighted matching functions and a comprehensive reference data set collected from 150 subjects.
Findings
The investigative results show that, with this multi-factor authentication approach, even when the PIN is exposed, as much as nine out of ten impersonation attempts can be successfully identified. It has also been discovered that the accuracy performance can be increased by combining different feature data types and by increasing the input string length.
Originality/value
The novel contributions of this paper are twofold. Firstly, it describes how a comprehensive experiment is set up to collect touch dynamics biometrics data, and the set of collected data is being made publically available, which may facilitate further research in the problem domain. Secondly, the paper demonstrates how the data set may be used to strengthen the protection of resources that are accessible via mobile devices.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research work was supported by the University of Manchester. The authors would also like to thank all the people who have contributed their time and effort to the creation of this data set, and also to the reviewers for their valuable time and insightful comments.
Citation
Teh, P.S., Zhang, N., Teoh, A.B.J. and Chen, K. (2016), "TDAS: a touch dynamics based multi-factor authentication solution for mobile devices", International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 127-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPCC-01-2016-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited