2FA

With the expansion of smartphone and financial technologies (FinTech), mobile money emerged to improve financial inclusion in many developing nations. The majority of the mobile money schemes used in these nations implement two-factor authentication (2FA) as the only means of verifying mobile money users. These 2FA schemes are vulnerable to numerous security attacks because they only use a personal identification number (PIN) and subscriber identity module (SIM). This study aims to develop a secure and efficient multi-factor authentication algorithm for mobile money applications. It uses a novel approach combining PIN, a one-time password (OTP), and a biometric fingerprint to enforce extra security during mobile money authentication. It also uses a biometric fingerprint and quick response (QR) code to confirm mobile money withdrawal. The security of the PIN and OTP is enforced by using secure hashing algorithm-256 (SHA-256), a biometric fingerprint by Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) that uses a standard public key cryptography technique (RSA), and Fernet encryption to secure a QR code and the records in the databases. The evolutionary prototyping model was adopted when developing the native mobile money application prototypes to prove that the algorithm is feasible and provides a higher degree of security. The developed applications were tested, and a detailed security analysis was conducted. The results show that the proposed algorithm is secure, efficient, and highly effective against the various threat models. It also offers secure and efficient authentication and ensures data confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation, user anonymity, and privacy. The performance analysis indicates that it achieves better overall performance compared with the existing mobile money systems.

Goal: The present work aims to present how the use of a blockchain two-factor authentication solution 2FA on a page developed on WordPress can contribute to the information security regarding user authentication.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research method employed is characterized as an exploratory research, since all the analysis is based on the theoretical reference data available on the subject. A field research was carried out in relation to the implementation of the multi-factor authentication plugin Hydro Raindrop MFA, which uses blockchain technology offered by The Hydrogen Technology Corporation and the Project Hydro platform over the Ethereum network. Thus, this paper sought to present and conceptualize some of the technologies used, pointing out their contribution to information security.

Results: The main results showed that the use of decentralized technology, such as blockchain and the Hydro Raindrop Plugin, can contribute considerably in the process of user authentication, which may strengthen the safeguard of the information and assets of individuals and organizations by inhibiting or reducing the possibility of successful a hacker attack. This solution is at the forefront of innovation with regard to data security because it uses advanced blockchain technology. It might contribute in a satisfactory way to the preservation of critical data and information that are the core value of many organizations of the industry 4.0.

Limitations of the investigation: This research was limited to analyzing how the implementation of the Hydro Raindrop multi-factor authentication solution on a WordPress page can be beneficial to ensure information security.

Practical implications: This study’s findings can contribute to entities interested in cybersecurity. As a suggestion for future works, analyses of plugins or similar solutions available on the market in distinct types of websites, or performance comparisons between them, may be relevant to contribute to scientific research.

Originality/Value: This work can contribute in an innovative way to scientific research, since it addresses a recently created solution that uses blockchain technology as its basis for a safer method of authentication.

Authentication on the Web is a challenge that can have a negative effect on user experience if it becomes overly complicated and cumbersome. This experience is even more crucial for older and visually impaired users due to their functional abilities. Web applications typically authenticate users by requesting for information that only the user knows (e.g. password). To enhance security, two-factor authentication (2FA) are increasingly implemented, which require the user to manually transfer information between 2FA devices and the Web application. This process can impose usability barriers and stress on human's memory. This paper proposes a technique to mitigate such issues by using wearables as the 2FA device, and to allow authentication information to be transferred seamlessly and automatically from the device to the Web application. From our preliminary results, older users found our approach less stressful on the human's memory and easier to use.