MULTILEVEL AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM FOR STEMMING CRIME IN ONLINE BANKING

Abstract

Multi-level authentication is a system in which two or more different factors are used in conjunction to access resources. Cybercrime is any criminal activity involving computers and networks, and it ranges from fraud to unsolicited emails, theft of government or corporate secrets through criminal trespass into remote systems around the globe. However, the wide use of online banking and technological advancement has attracted the interest of malicious and criminal users with more sophisticated attacks. Therefore, banks need to adapt their security systems to effectively stem threats posed by imposters and hackers, and also provide higher security standards that assures customers of a secured environment to perform their financial transactions. The aim of this research work is to stem all possible criminal threats when performing an online financial transaction. The authentication techniques employed include the mutual secure socket layer authentication embedded with the user ID and password verification, icon recognition, colour recognition, operator challenge and soft token authentication. The system was developed using interface design tools which include Adobe Dreamweaver CS6,Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), Server side scripting language-Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and Database management system – MySQL on Windows 7 platform. The analysis from the multilevel authentication system shows that online banking services have significant advantages over branch premises banking which encourage customers to engage in online transaction. However, the multilevel authentication techniques developed in this research, when compared with the existing authentication system used in online banking system, combined different authentication techniques on a single platform which when implemented enabled a more secured environment with minimal requirement from the customer, no additional hardware required with ease of management. Therefore, this research work is an approach made towards providing a more reliable solution for stemming cyber crime in online banking through the implementation of user multi-level authentication system.