Coupling Biometrics and Wireless Security for Robust User Authentication

Wireless security is a key aspect in protocols and standards for the beyond 3G network. Moreover cellular networks and WLANs integration asks for a stronger security infrastructure. In those situations where the issues about the reliability of the personal authentication are relevant, stronger identification methods using biometric parameters can both confirm the declared credentials and enrich the overall security. The paper presents an infrastructure that integrates device and personal authentication for exploiting robust security in presence of wireless connections and it shows some experimental results. While basic device authentication is based on standard protocols mutually trusting machines through a certificate exchange, user authentication based on biometric parameters, especially when matching is directly performed on a smart card, allows a stronger degree of security, even at the application level.