Keystroke dynamics identity verification—its problems and practical solutions

Abstract

Password is the most widely used identity verification method in computer security domain. However, because of its simplicity, it is vulnerable to imposter attacks. Use of keystroke dynamics can result in a more secure verification system. Recently, Cho et al. (J Organ Comput Electron Commerce 10 (2000) 295) proposed autoassociative neural network approach, which used only the user's typing patterns, yet reporting a low error rate: 1.0% false rejection rate (FRR) and 0% false acceptance rate (FAR). However, the previous research had some limitations: (1) it took too long to train the model; (2) data were preprocessed subjectively by a human; and (3) a large data set was required. In this article, we propose the corresponding solutions for these limitations with an SVM novelty detector, GA–SVM wrapper feature subset selection, and an ensemble creation based on feature selection, respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed methods are promising, and that the keystroke dynamics is a viable and practical way to add more security to identity verification.