Discreet verification of user identity in pervasive computing environments using a non-intrusive technique

•A user-centric, unobtrusive approach for verifying the user’s identity is proposed.•The approach uses knowledge about the user’s behaviour to infer their identity.•The approach uses a simple numerical algorithm to assert the user’s identity.

This paper presents a new approach for verifying user identity in pervasive environments using a non-intrusive behaviour tracking technique that offers minimum interruption to the user’s activities. The technique, termed Non-intrusive Identity Assertion System (NIAS), uses knowledge of how the user uses the environment’s services to infer their identity. The technique monitors user behaviour through identifying certain types of activity without the need for detailed tracking of user behaviour, thus minimising intrusion on the user’s normal activities. The technique was evaluated using a simulated environment to assess its reliability. Simulation results show that the technique can be applied in various situations such as strict and relaxed security settings by applying different security policies. They also show that the technique is particularly effective where the environment has a mixture of high and low security resources in which case reliability could exceed 99%.

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