Multifactor Authentication

Authentication can be accomplished with one factor, two factors, or multiple factors. Which one is the weakest level of authentication and which is the most secure and why? When would a more secure system be required? Be able to explain these multifactor authentication methods: password protection, token presence, voice biometrics, facial recognition, ocular-based methodology, hand geometry, vein recognition, fingerprint scanner, thermal image recognition, and geographical location. What are some challenges of multiple factor authentication when using biometrics? There is a lot of interesting information covered in this article that you do not need to memorize, but that you should be aware of.

4. Enabling Flexible MFA Operation

In this work, we offer a new authentication scheme that focuses on the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenarios, since cars of today are already equipped with multiple sensors that could potentially be utilized for MFA. Conventionally, the user has a username/password/PIN/token and will additionally be asked to utilize a biometric factor, such as facial features or fingerprints. The general overview supported by a follow-up discussion is given in Figure 4. If the authentication procedure fails to establish trust by using this combination of factors, then the user will be prompted to authenticate by utilizing another previously registered factor or a set of those. This MFA system may not only verify the accuracy of the user input but also determine how the user interacts with the devices, i.e., analyze the behavior. The more the user interacts with the biometric system, the more accurate its operation becomes.

Figure 4. Current and emerging MFA sensors for vehicles.


Another feature of the discussed scenario is the actual sensor usability in case of interaction with a car. If a sensor (e.g., a fingerprint reader) is being utilized and that device is not available from where the user is attempting to log in or gain access­ – the user experience becomes inadequate. Having a dual-purpose device­ – smartphone or smartwatch (suitable for executing the information security primitives), which the user already has in his or her possession­ – as an additional MFA factor (not only as a token) makes both the system costs and usability much more reasonable.

The presence of large amounts of sensor data brings us to the logical next step of its application in MFA. We further envision potential utilization of the corresponding factors to authenticate the user without implementing a dedicated "verifier" with the actual biometric data except for the one collected in real time.