Towards Transparent Multi-Device-Authentication

Mobile devices are ubiquitous today and because they provide access to our digital lives, strong authentication is required to prevent unauthorized access. Commonly applied knowledge-based mechanisms like PIN and password, however, fail to scale with high frequency of device interactions and increasing number of mobile devices carried simultaneously. As a result, users are forced to authenticate dozens of times throughout the day and often disable authentication, choosing convenience over security. In our research, we aim to expand the concept of single-sign-on from a single device to all of the user's devices, allowing trusted devices within close proximity to securely and transparently share authentication information in order to gain sufficient confidence in the user's identity to omit explicit authentication.