A personal authentication scheme using mobile technology

Security is a major concern in mobile commerce where information is sent over the air. Authentication is possibly the most important property since achieving privacy and integrity may have no sense without the guaranty of the receiver identity. We propose a mobile architecture for strong personal authentication using mobile devices (cellular phones or PDAs) and wireless personal area networks (WPAN) like Bluetooth. The mobile device stores private information and performs cryptographic operations while WPAN connects mobile devices with access points. The risk of insecure wireless networks inclusion is studied and solved using suitable authentication protocols.