Identity Verification using Keyboard Statistics.

Abstract: In the age of a networking revolution, when the Internet has changed not only the way we see computing, but also the whole society, we constantly face new challenges in the area of user verification. It is often the case that the login-id password pair does not provide a sufficient level of security. Other, more sophisticated techniques are used: one-time passwords, smart cards or biometric identity verification. The biometric approach is considered to be one of the most secure ways of authentication. On the other hand, many biometric methods require additional hardware in order to sample the corresponding biometric feature, which increases the costs and the complexity of implementation. There is however one biometric technique which does not demand any additional hardware – user identification based on keyboard statistics. This thesis is focused on this way of authentication. The keyboard statistics approach is based on the user’s unique typing rhythm. Not only what the user types, but also how she/he types is important. This report describes the statistical analysis of typing samples which were collected from 20 volunteers, as well as the implementation and testing of the identity verification system, which uses the characteristics examined in the experimental stage.