A Privacy-Centered Protocol for Enhancing Security and Authentication of Academic Certificates

Abstract

Academic certificate authentication is crucial in safeguarding the rights and opportunities of individuals who have earned academic credentials. This authentication helps prevent fraud and forgery, ensuring that only those who have genuinely earned certificates can use them for education and career opportunities. With the increased use of online education and digital credentials in the digital age, the importance of academic certificate authentication has significantly grown. However, traditional techniques for authentication, such as QR code, barcode, and watermarking, have limitations regarding security and privacy. Therefore, proposing a privacy-centred protocol to enhance the security and authentication of academic certificates is vital to improve the trust and credibility of digital academic certificates, ensuring that individuals' rights and opportunities are protected. In this context, we adopted the Challenge Handshake Authentication (CHA) protocol to propose the Certificate Verification Privacy Control Protocol (CVPC). We implemented it using Python and Flask with a Postgres database and an MVT structure for the application. The results of the implementation demonstrate that the proposed protocol effectively preserves privacy during the academic certificate issuance and verification process. Additionally, we developed a proof of concept to evaluate the proposed protocol, demonstrating its functionality and performance. The PoC provided insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed protocol and highlighted its potential to prevent forgery and unauthorised access to academic certificates. Overall, the proposed protocol has the potential to significantly enhance the security and authenticity of academic certificates, improving the overall trust and credibility of the academic credentialing system.