"LSU Computer Science Faculty Furthering Research Into Smartphone Security"
Many smartphone users unlock their devices using biometric data such as their fingerprint, face, and voice. In addition, they use this information to log into apps, make online purchases, pay bills, and more. However, the concern is whether this data can be replicated and reused. Since these biometrics are static and unchanging, they cannot be used for future authentication if they are compromised. This challenge is at the center of Louisiana State University (LSU) Computer Science Assistant Professor Chen Wang's developing research on hand-gripping as a verification method. Wang's research last year, supported by a grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents, was on notification privacy and the use of a smartphone's own musical sounds/vibrations during notification for verification. This time, with the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), his research has expanded to include various smartphone features. Wang stated that this research focuses on tackling two persistent problems in mobile device authentication, which are obtrusiveness and replay threats. The goals are to reduce the user effort required for authentication so that they can handle in-situation privacy provisions and to render biometric data non-reusable so that an adversary cannot replay a person's biometrics to impersonate them. This article continues to discuss Wang's research aimed at bolstering smartphone security.