Auth4ALL
Full Title
One Method Does Not Fit All: Co-design of Context-aware Adaptive Mobile Authentication for Older AdultsDescription
Thanks to improvements in healthcare, people are living longer, with a better quality of life. However, aging still brings challenges, such as cognitive and motor skill decline, or health conditions. While the pandemic has led to a growth in digital services, accessing them still poses challenges for older adults, especially those who are not tech savvy. These start with the process of authentication. Password-based authentication remains the most established method, despite its increasing complexity and memory demands, which is critical for older adults. Password managers could alleviate such demands, but are yet to find acceptance among older adults, due to the setup effort involved and trust issues. Alternatives such as biometric authentication address the main challenges posed by knowledge- and token-based methods, but their efficacy for older adults might be hindered by physical aging-related changes (e.g., cold fingers, eyesight problems), as well as contextual changes (e.g., changes in light level), and training/calibration issues. Ultimately, these challenges may prevent older adults from accessing their own devices/accounts.
We believe in addressing these challenges, not by proposing a “one size fits all” solution, but rather by adapting to the user’s preferences, usage patterns, device’s capabilities, and surrounding context, taking advantage of authentication methods already available. Adaptive authentication has already been explored, but there are gaps to be filled, such as the lack of diversity of the methods being combined and contextual factors considered, or the limited availability/depth of usability studies. More critically, the value of adaptive authentication is yet to be assessed for older adults, despite its potential to cope with the issues identified.
In Auth4ALL, we envision to advance the state of the art of usable authentication through the creation of a novel framework for adaptive authentication informed by older adults’ habits, needs, and contexts. Auth4ALL breaks new ground by bridging the gap between current research on adaptive authentication and the need to tailor authentication to better suit older adults needs, helping them overcome the usability and age-related issues that might hinder their use and adoption of technology, thus ensuring they are not being left out technology-wise. Ultimately, we aim at promoting their empowerment and autonomy to exercise their right to privacy and security (by depending less on their relatives to access a variety of services) while ensuring they are not easy targets for cybersecurity attacks.
Funding Entity
FCTReference
2024.14974.PEXStart Date
01/02/2026End Date
31/07/2027Coordinator
LASIGE/FCiências.IDPartners
George Mason University (GMU), Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina (FMUL), Católica Research Centre for Psychological, Family and Social Wellbeing (CRC-W/UCP)Principal Investigator at LASIGE
Soraia Meneses AlarcãoTeam at LASIGE
- Filipa Ferreira-Brito
- Hugo Simão
- Letícia Seixas Pereira
- Luís Carriço
- Soraia Meneses Alarcão
- Vânia Mendonça