By Oren Maoz Sharabi
A password is a component of the authentication system that many of us use daily to access our private accounts. These accounts may include Bank accounts, social networking sites, and forums, among others. The usage of passwords is unlikely to cease in the near future, but they will eventually become obsolete.
Researchers are designing a better authentication system for consumers, so that they don't have to remember as many passwords and don't need their mobile device to receive SMS or other authentication methods. Authentication based on a user's behavior is the innovative approach to the problem that keeps us busy nowadays. With this method, the researcher asserts that being yourself is sufficient.
Behavioral Authentication is more concerned with "How" a person inputs and interacts with their device than "What" they type. It accomplishes this by continuously monitoring and analyzing keystrokes, mouse movements, finger pressure, swipe patterns, and more, and then comparing this behavior with a unique user model to determine a match. A low score, which reflects significant changes in the user's behavior, is an indication that some security policy action may be necessary. However, the world is not yet ready for this sort of verification, as there are various issues with this method and you must invest in additional methods.
Therefore, what should we do to build an authentication system in our organization? Before we develop and apply password policy in the business, let's examine a few concepts that will help us design a stronger and more secure authentication mechanism for the organization.
Authentication mechanism types are divided into 3 parts:
Something You Know
Something You Have
Something You Are
Something You Know
The most frequent form of the something you know factor is a password or a simple personal identification number (PIN). It is, however, the most vulnerable to brute force and dictionary attacks. Another concern is the installation of password encryption in databases; if a business suffers a data breach and the password is encrypted, a hacker can decrypt the password using rainbow table technology.
When implementing a password mechanism on a domain controller (DC) or designing an application, it is vital for businesses to establish a policy mandating the use of strong passwords. A strong password contains a combination of capital letters, lowercase letters, digits, and special characters. Historically, security experts suggested that passwords be at least eight characters long. With the increased power of password crackers, however, it is typical for specialists to advocate longer passwords. Many firms, for instance, demand administrator passwords to be at least 15 characters long.
When utilizing lengthy passwords, users experience a typical issue.
It is more difficult to remember them without a meaningful arrangement. For instance, the phrase "This is my protected password" can be transformed into the password "Thi$I$MyPr073c73dP@$w0rd."
Password rules:
Each word starts with a capital letter
Each lower case “a” is changed to a @
Each lower case “s” is changed to $
Each lower case “e” is changed to 3
Each lower case “t” is changed to 7
Each lower case “o” is changed to 0
The spaces are removed.
To learn more, you can seek leet writing (1337) for comprehend the notion of the above letters and numbers.
Using this method makes passwords easier to remember, despite their complexity. However, if a user is needed to remember a lengthy, meaningless password, such as "t5H*&WQfew4#," they are considerably more likely to write it down and become an easy target.
Something You Have
It should be portable, such as smart cards, mobile phones, token devices, and more.
Something You Are
Authentication based on biometric approaches is based on a physical characteristic. Fingerprints, hand geometry, retinal or iris scans, handwriting, and voice analysis are some of the biometric approaches that can be implemented. Today, fingerprints and palm prints are the most extensively used biometric identifiers. Recently, academics have developed behavior analysis that considers you to be something.
The use of 2 types out of 3 is known as 2FA (two-factor authentication); nevertheless, some individuals incorrectly believe that designing a system to use PINs and passwords to log in constitutes 2FA.
2FA is the usage of two out of three authentication mechanisms.
Conclusion
The deployment of an authentication system Is not simple. Each company should examine the initial cost, the budget for upkeep, and the long-term implications. Therefore, not everything is black and white, and although some organizations can utilize one-factor authentication for a system, others can use two- or three-factor authentication.