Multi-Factor Authentication for e-Government Services using a Smartphone Application and Biometric Identity Verification

Abstract

The growing usage of smartphones and tablets has a significant impact on e-government services, according to Cisco and accounted for 59 percent of total IP traffic during 2018. In the provision of e-government services, usernames and passwords are still the most common authentication scheme. A password, however, is a weak authentication scheme, as it can easily be hacked over an insecure network connection. Therefore, a robust security solution for data in transit is becoming increasingly necessary. This paper proposes an authentication scheme that integrates multi-factor authentication procedures, a One-Time Password (OTP) and biometric authentication ("facial recognition" or "fingerprint") for the unified authentication of users before allowing them to access e-government services via a self-enrollment process.