Soumik Mondal successfully completed his PhD trial lecture and thesis defense at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology on Wednesday, the 24th of February 2016 and will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The title of his thesis is Continuous User Authentication and Identification: Combination of Security and Forensics.
It examines how to prevent unauthorized use of computers by using continuous authentication.
For most computer systems, once the user’s identity is verified at login, the system resources are available to that user until he/she locks the session. In fact, the system resources are available to any user during that period. This can lead to session hijacking, in which an attacker targets an open session, e.g. when the genuine user gets a cup of coffee, or leaves to talk to a colleague.
To avoid unauthorized use of a computer and its resources, a continuous check of the user’s identity is important. Continuous Authentication has built around the biometrics supplied by the user’s physical or behavioural characteristics and continuously checks the identity of the user throughout the session.
But once it is discovered that it is not the genuine user that is using the computer, it is important to be able to identify who the imposter is. Mondal is the first to look at the issue with identifying the imposter in this manner. He has contributed a dynamic model that is able to make a decision on the genuineness of the user after each single action performed by the current user, as well as an identification technique that has achieved good results.
The following committee has been appointed to evaluate his thesis, trial lecture and defense:
- First external opponent: Professor Issa Traore, University of Victoria, ECE Department, ISOT Lab, Canada.
- Second external opponent: Assistant Professor Luuk Spreeuwers, University of Twente, Faculty of EEMCS, The Netherlands.
- Internal opponent: Associate Professor Basel Katt, AIMT, NTNU. Substitute for Basel Katt on 24 February was Professor Slobodan Petrovic, AIMT, NTNU.
- Associate Professor Sule Yildirim-Yayilgan, AIMT/NISlab, NTNU was the administrator for the assessment committee.
- Dean Nils Kalstad Svendsen led disputation.
Soumik Mondal carried out his PhD work at the Faculty of Computer Science and Media Technology, NTNU. His supervisor has been Professor Patrick Bours, NTNU, while co-supervisor has been Professor Christophe Rosenberger, ENSICAEN, France.
Congratulations!
