Date of Award

7-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Computer Engineering and Sciences

First Advisor

Lucas Stephane

Second Advisor

Walter Bond

Third Advisor

Marius Silaghi

Fourth Advisor

Munevver Subasi

Abstract

With the process of logging in, the users gain access to a computer system after identifying and authenticating themselves. The user credentials are required to login, and they are typically some form of a username and a matching password. The username for logging in an account is textual. This text can be either email address or some alphanumeric or numeric or characters chosen by the user. However, if the email account of a user is compromised, the attacker can click on Forgot Password link available on the user interface of the target account. If the compromised email account has the same email address as the one used when registering to the target account, then a password reset link will be sent to the email address and the attacker will be able to compromise the target account as well. In addition, if the username of the target account is known, the attacker will just have to crack the password of that account. The primary goal of this research is to address the vulnerabilities of the authentication systems and thereby strengthen the security of user accounts by enhancing and reinforcing security and usability of user account authentication using fingerprints as username.

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