Multi-factor Authentication Techniques for Video Applications over the Untrusted Internet

Abstract

Designing a completely secure and trusted system is a challenge that still needs to be addressed. Currently, there is no online system that is: (i) easy to use, (ii) easy to deploy, (iii) inexpensive, and (iv) completely secure and trusted. The proposed authentication techniques aim to enhance security and trust for video applications in the untrustworthy online environments. We propose a transparent multimodal biometric authentication (TMBA) for video conferencing applications. The user is identified based on his/her physiological and behavioral biometrics. The technique is based on a ‘Steps-Free’ method, where the user does not have to perform any specific steps during authentication. The system will authenticate the user in a transparent way. We propose authentication techniques as an additional security layer for various ‘user-to-user’ and ‘user-to-service’ systems. For ‘user-to-user’ video conferencing systems, we propose an authentication and trust establishment procedure to identify users during a video conference. This technique enables users that have never met before to verify the identity of each other, and aims at enhancing the user’s trust in each other. For ‘user-to-service’ video conferencing systems, we propose a transparent multimodal biometric authentication technique for video banking. The technique can be added to online transaction systems as an additional security layer to enhance the security of online transactions, and to resist against web attacks, malware, and Man-In-The-Browser (MITB) attacks. In order to have a video banking conference between a user and a bank employee, the user has to be logged in to an online banking session. This requires a knowledge-based authentication. Knowledge-based authentication includes a text-based password, the ‘Challenge Questions’ method, and graphical passwords. We analyzed several graphical password schemes in terms of usability and security factors. A graphical password scheme can be an additional security layer add-on to the proposed multimodal biometric video banking system. The combined techniques provide a multimodal biometric multi-factor continuous authentication system.