Identity Management for Web-Enabled Smart Card Platform

摘要

The amount of sensitive information stored in different online services is rapidly growing in traditional web applications and also in mobile services. Most of these services control their own authentication credentials, increasing the number of credentials that the user needs to manage. Previous literature shows that when the amount of passwords grows, users tend to create weaker passwords or reuse passwords for different services. This exposes users to security threats. Attacks target weak passwords and compromised security might result in a domino effect, with one exposed password giving access to multiple services. In addition to usability issues, the mobile platform is vulnerable to physical attacks if the device is lost or stolen. This creates a need for a secure credential management platform for mobile devices that addresses these problems and creates a usable environment for the management of credentials. One such solution could be provided by a secure element inside the mobile device. The secure element is special hardware that provides secure code execution for the mobile platform, as in existing smart card platforms.