Privacy-Preserving Sensor-Based Continuous Authentication and User Profiling: A Review

L. Hernández-Álvarez, J.M. de Fuentes, L. González-Manzano and L. Hernández Encinas
Sensors, 21(1), 92 (2021), 23 pp., Special Issue “Cryptography and Information Security in Wireless Sensor Networks”

Ensuring the confidentiality of private data stored in our technological devices is a fundamental aspect for protecting our personal and professional information. Authentication procedures are among the main methods used to achieve this protection and, typically, are implemented only when accessing the device. Nevertheless, in many occasions it is necessary to carry out user authentication in a continuous manner to guarantee an allowed use of the device while protecting authentication data. In this work, we first review the state of the art of Continuous Authentication (CA), User Profiling (UP), and related biometric databases. Secondly, we summarize the privacy-preserving methods employed to protect the security of sensor-based data used to conduct user authentication, and some practical examples of their utilization. The analysis of the literature of these topics reveals the importance of sensor-based data to protect personal and professional information, as well as the need for exploring a combination of more biometric features with privacy-preserving approaches.

Funding

L.H.-Á. and L.H.E. have been partially supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through Project COPCIS, grant No. TIN2017-84844-C2-1-R, J.M.d.F. and L.G.-M. by CAVTIONS-CM-UC3M funded by UC3M and the Government of Madrid (CAM), and by Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain by grant PID2019-111429RB-C21, and all authors by Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) through Project CYNAMON, grant No. P2018/TCS-4566-CM, co-funded with ERDF.