TOWARDS AUTHENTICATION USING MOBILE DEVICES An Investigation of the Prerequisites

Abstract

In this paper we show how mobile devices can be used as authentication tokens. We highlight the prerequisites such as mobile device security and mobile communication security. We elaborate on already existing solutions and on what issues in the context of security remain to be addressed. Beside the comprehensive overview, our main contribution is to explain how the different characteristics of wireless communication can be abstracted. Based on this abstraction an implementation of mobile authentication is transparent both to the application programmer and to the end users.