SEPIA: Secure-PIN-Authentication-as-a-Service for ATM Using Mobile and Wearable Devices

Abstract

Credit card fraud is a common problem in today's world. Financial institutions have registered major loses till today due to users being exposed of their credit card information. Shoulder-surfing or observation attacks, including card skimming and video recording with hidden cameras while users perform PIN-based authentication at ATM terminals is one of the common threats for common users. Researchers have struggled to come up with secure solutions for secure PIN authentication. However, modern day ubiquitous wearable devices, such as the Google Glass have presented us with newer opportunities in this research area. In this paper, we propose Secure-PIN-Authentication-as-a-Service (SEPIA), a secure obfuscated PIN authentication protocol for ATM and other point-of-service terminals using cloud-connected personal mobile and wearable devices. Our approach protects the user from shoulder-surfers and partial observation attacks, and is also resistant to relay, replay, and intermediate transaction attacks. A SEPIA user utilizes a Google Glass or a mobile device for scanning a QR code on the terminal screen to prove co-location to the cloud-based server and obtain a secure PIN template for point-of-service authentication. SEPIA ensures minimal task overhead on the user's device with maximal computation offloaded to the cloud. We have implemented a proof-of-concept prototype to perform experimental analysis and a usability study for the SEPIA architecture.