Pattern of Success Vs. Pattern of Failure: Adaptive Authentication Through Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K-S) Statistics

Abstract

Abstract-Smartphones have become a basic necessity in lives of all human beings. Apart from the core functionality of communication, these become a medium for storage of sensitive personal information, financial data and official documents. Hence, there is an inevitable need to emphasize on securing access to such devices considering the nature of data being stored. In addition, accessibility and authentication methods need to secure, robust, and user-friendly. This paper discusses an adaptive authentication mechanism with a nonparametric classification approach, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) statistic, which is coupled with the use of lock pattern dynamics as a secure and user-friendly two-factor authentication method. The data used for experimental exploration were collected from a systematically programmed Android device to capture the temporal parameters when individuals drew lock patterns on the touch screen. Each user has his individualistic way of drawing the pattern, which is used as the key for identifying imposters from valid users.