Display security for online transactions: SMS-based authentication scheme

Secure online transactions with human users normally require visual display for verifying the correctness of central elements of the transaction before it is submitted. When commodity computer platforms get exposed to the Internet, even for a short period, there is a real and substantial risk that they become infected with malware that can modify anything on the computer, including what is displayed to the user and what is being sent over the Internet. This threat makes visual verification of transaction data unreliable and undermines other security mechanisms used to protect online transactions. This paper proposes a method for display security to make the verification of displayed data in the SMS-based authentication scheme more robust against the threat of compromised platforms.