Tag Archives: authentication

When the Games Stopped: March 11, 2020

In late 2019 and early 2020 I was working on a project promoting biometric entry at sports facilities and concert venues…until a teeny little worldwide pandemic shut down all the sport and concert venues.

Some of you may remember that a pivotal day during that period was March 11, 2020. Among many many other things, this was the day on which basketball fans awaited the start of a game.

“8 p.m. [ET; 7 p.m. local time]: In Oklahoma City, it was just another game day for Nerlens Noel and his Thunder teammates, who were warming up to play the visiting Utah Jazz.”

The day soon became abnormal after a meeting between NBA officials and the two coaches. Unbeknownst to the crowd, the officials and coaches were discussing a medical diagnosis of Rudy Gobert. (That’s another story.)

“8:31 p.m. [ET]: Teams were sent back to their locker rooms but the crowd at Chesapeake Energy Arena weren’t informed of the cancellation immediately. Instead, recording artist Frankie J, the intended halftime entertainment, put on his show, while officials decided how to break the news.”

Eight minutes later, the crowd was instructed to leave the arena.

Twenty minutes after that, the NBA suspended all games.

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A little over a month later, on April 19, millions of people were huddled in their homes, glued to the opening episode of a TV series called The Last Dance…the only basketball any of us were going to get for a while. And of course, these games were on decades-long tape delay, and we already knew the outcome. (The Chicago Bulls won.)

And that was our basketball…until the suspended season resumed on July 30 under very bizarre circumstances.

Anyway, all of that was a very long time ago.

Imagen 4.

Games and concerts have been back in business since 2021, and identity verification and authentication of venue visitors with biometrics and other factors is becoming more popular every year.

An IMEI Number Is NOT Unique to Each Mobile Phone

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Have you ever used the phrase “sort of unique”? Something is either unique or it isn’t. And International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers fail the uniquness test.

Claims that International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers are unique

Here’s what a few companies say about the IMEI number on each mobile phone. Emphasis mine.

  • Thales: “The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number is a unique 15-digit serial number for identifying a device; every mobile phone in the world has one.”
  • Verizon: “An IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. Think of it as your phone’s fingerprint — it’s a 15-digit number unique to each device.”
  • Blue Goat Cyber: “In today’s interconnected world, where our smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives, it is essential to understand the concept of IMEI – the International Mobile Equipment Identity. This unique identifier plays a crucial role in various aspects of our mobile devices, from security to tracking and repairs.”

These and other descriptions of the IMEI prominently use the word “unique.” Not “sort of unique,” but “unique.”

Which means (for non-person entities, just like persons) that if someone can find a SINGLE reliable instance of more than one mobile phone having the same IMEI number, then the claim of uniqueness falls apart completely.

Examples of non-uniqueness of IMEI numbers on mobile phones

People who claim IMEI uniqueness obviously didn’t read my Bredemarket blog post of April 1, in which I WASN’T fooling.

  • I talked about an incident in India in which a cyber fraud operation “specialised in IMEI cloning.”
  • And an incident in Canada in which someone was scammed out of C$1,000, even though the phone had a valid IMEI.

IMEICheck.net even tells you (at a high level) how to clone an IMEI. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible.

“In theory, hackers can clone a phone using its IMEI, but this requires significant effort. They need physical access to the device or SIM card to extract data, typically using specialized tools.

“The cloning process involves copying the IMEI and other credentials necessary to create a functional duplicate of the phone. However, IMEI number security features in modern devices are designed to prevent unauthorized cloning.”

So don’t claim an IMEI is unique when there is evidence to the contrary. As I said in my April post:

“NOTHING provides 100.00000% security. Not even an IMEI number.”

What does this mean for your identity product?

If you offer an identity product, educate your prospects and avoid unsupportable claims. While a few prospects may be swayed by “100%” claims, the smarter ones will appreciate more supportable statements, such as “Our facial recognition algorithm demonstrated a 0.0022 false non-match rate in the mugshot:mugshot NIST FRTE 1:1 laboratory testing.”

When you are truthful in educating your prospects, they will (apologizes in advance for using this overused word) trust you and become more inclined to buy from you.

If you need help in creating content (blog posts, case studies, white papers, proposals, and many more), work with Bredemarket to create the customer-focused content you need. Book a free meeting with me.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers

PoisonSeed and FIDO Update

Update to my July 21 post “PoisonSeed: Cross-Device Authentication Shouldn’t Allow Authentication on a Fraudster’s Device.” FIDO’s cross-device authentication is NOT inherently insecure.

From Chris Burt at Biometric Update:

“A reported passkey vulnerability has been walked back, and FIDO is recommended as the fix to the vulnerability of “phishable” MFA wreaking havoc on corporate networks around the world.

“The PoisonSeed attack reported by security company Expel earlier this month does not give access to protected assets, if the FIDO Cross-Device Authentication flow is properly implemented.”

Proper implementation and configuration is essential.

Is Biometric Authentication Marketing Profitable?

When a company such as Bredemarket promotes itself, often we don’t know who is receiving the marketing messages. Therefore, we have to BROADCAST.

When we do know who is receiving our messaging, we can NARROWCAST.

Hmmm…how could we know this?

Ask TLG Marketing.

“Businesses are rapidly adopting biometric authentication marketing as it serves a dual purpose: enhancing security and providing a customized marketing experience.”

But does it pay? Yes.

“By integrating fingerprint recognition technology, a retail company optimized its app experience, leading to a 20% increase in online sales. In another case, a banking institution used facial recognition for secure and quick authentication, resulting in a customer service rating boost of 25%.”

There are ways other than biometrics to know who your prospects are, but knowledge based authentication (KBA) such as passwords has its weaknesses. With KBA you may not be interacting with your prospects, but with your prospect’s spouse or child.

JOE’S ALCOHOL EMPORIUM: Evelyn, what types of alcohol do you prefer?

EVELYN’S TEENAGE SON WHO KNOWS HER PASSWORD IS HIS BIRTHDATE: 200 proof, man! Let’s get wasted!

Bredemarket has created targeted, segmented content, including individualized content. Let me help you communicate with your individual prospects. Talk to me.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers
Tech marketers, are you afraid?

Geolocation, Privacy…and Abuse

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I’ve frequently talked about geolocation as a factor of authentication, and have also mentioned the privacy concerns that rise with the use of geolocation for identification.

But sometimes it’s not just an issue of privacy, but something more sinister.

Authentic Living Therapy is a counselor specializing in trauma, abuse, emotional abuse, anxiety, depression, self-harm, parenting, and relationship difficulties. The page recently shared an image post on Facebook with the title

“Tracking someone’s location isn’t always about care. Sometimes, it’s about control.”

I encourage you to read the entire post here.

As with many other privacy-related issues, it all resolves around consent.

  • If Agnes wants Bob to track her location to ensure she is safe, it is fine if Agnes freely consents for Bob to track it.
  • If Bob wants to track Agnes’ location, you need to ensure that Agnes is not being forced to consent.
  • If Bob wants to track Agnes’ location but refuses to let Agnes track Bob’s location, there are many red flags.
By Denelson83 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=498580.

If you are a tech marketer and want to share how your identity solution protects individual privacy, I can help you write the necessary content. Let’s meet. Before your competition shares ITS story and steals your prospects and revenue.

Stop losing prospects! Use Bredemarket content for tech marketers
Tech marketers, are you afraid?

How Many Authentication Factor Types Are There?

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An authentication factor is a discrete method of authenticating yourself. Each factor is a distinct category.

For example, authenticating with fingerprint biometrics and authenticating with facial image biometrics are both the same factor type, because they both involve “something you are.”

But how many factors are there?

Three factors of authentication

There are some people who argue that there are only really three authentication factors:

  • Something you know, such as a password, or a personal identification number (PIN), or your mother’s maiden name.
  • Something you have, such as a driver’s license, passport, or hardware or software token.
  • Something you are, such as the aforementioned fingerprint and facial image, plus others such as iris, voice, vein, DNA, and behavioral biometrics such as gait.

Five factors of authentication, not three

I argue that there are more than three.

  • Something you do, such as super-secret swiping patterns to unlock a device.
  • Somewhere you are, or geolocation.

For some of us, these are the five standard authentication factors. And they can also function for identity verification.

Six factors of authentication, not five

But I’ve postulated that there is one more.

  • Somewhat you why, or a measure of intent and reasonableness.

For example, take a person with a particular password, ID card, biometric, action, and geolocation (the five factors). Sometimes this person may deserve access, sometimes they may not.

  • The person may deserve access if they are an employee and arrive at the location during working hours.
  • That same person may deserve access if they were fired and are returning a company computer. (But wouldn’t their ID card and biometric access have already been revoked if they were fired? Sometimes…sometimes not.)
  • That same person may NOT deserve access if they were fired and they’re heading straight for their former boss’ personal HR file.

Or maybe just five factors of authentication

Now not everyone agrees that this sixth factor of authentication is truly a factor. If “not everyone” means no one, and I’m the only person blabbering about it.

So while I still work on evangelizing the sixth factor, use the partially accepted notion that there are five factors.

PoisonSeed: Cross-Device Authentication Shouldn’t Allow Authentication on a Fraudster’s Device

(Important July 30 update here.)

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The FIDO Alliance is one of the chief proponents of the “death of passwords” movement, and is working on delivering secure authentication. But even the most secure authentication method is not 100% secure. Nothing is.

Authentication is a complex undertaking, and the ability to authenticate on a new device is a special challenge. But the FIDO Alliance has addressed this:

“Cross device authentication allows a user to sign in with their device using a QR code. 

“FIDO Cross-Device Authentication (CDA) allows a passkey from one device to be used to sign in on another device. For example, your phone can be linked to your laptop, allowing you to use a passkey from your phone to sign into a service on your laptop.

“CDA is powered by the FIDO Client-to-Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) using “hybrid” transport. CTAP is implemented by authenticators and client platforms, not Relying Parties.”

What could go wrong? Well, according to Expel, plenty:

“After entering their username and password on the phishing site, the user was presented with a QR code…. 

“What happened behind the scenes is the phishing site automatically sent the stolen username and password to the legitimate login portal of the organization, along with a request to utilize the cross-device sign-in feature of FIDO keys. The login portal then displayed a QR code….

“In the case of this attack, the bad actors have entered the correct username and password and requested cross-device sign-in. The login portal displays a QR code, which the phishing site immediately captures and relays back to the user on the fake site. The user scans it with their MFA authenticator, the login portal and the MFA authenticator communicate, and the attackers are in.

“This process—while seemingly complicated—effectively neutralizes any protections that a FIDO key grants, and gives the attackers access to the compromised user’s account, including access to any applications, sensitive documents, and tools such access provides.”

Presumably the FIDO Alliance will address this soon.

Four Time-bound Geolocations = Identity?

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(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

Some don’t believe that geolocation is a valid factor of identity/verification/authentication.

Some do.

If you ignore what Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye et al said about the validity of 12 fingerprint minutiae points in their 2013 study (cited in phys.org), their conclusions about cell phone locations deserve consideration.

“By analyzing 15 months of cell phone mobility data from 1.5 million people, researchers have found that only four spatio-temporal points (an individual’s approximate whereabouts at the approximate time when they’re using their cell phone) are all that’s needed to uniquely identify 95% of the individuals.”

Why?

“[T]he researchers’ data shows that just four spatio-temporal points are needed to uniquely identify the mobility trace of an individual. In other words, it’s not likely that someone else will be in the same locations as you are at four different times of day.”

And once you perform multi-factor authentication by combining geolocation with another factor, such as an address or a social media post, privacy disappears.

And now a word from our sponsor.

Verify the Supporting Documents Aren’t Forged

From the CBC in Canada:

“The documents were forged Labour Market Impact Assessments, or LMIAs. Employers typically receive the documents from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) if they want to hire a foreign worker.”

Biometrics aren’t enough. The person may be who they say they are, but the documentation they are holding may be fake.

More on this type of fraud: https://www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7516048

(Forged document from Imagen 3. Lincoln never held a law license in the then-United Kingdom.)