Conducting and Mitigating Portable Thermal Imaging Attacks on User Authentication using AI-driven Methods

Macdonald, S. A. , Alotaibi, N. , Islam, M. S. and Khamis, M. (2023) Conducting and Mitigating Portable Thermal Imaging Attacks on User Authentication using AI-driven Methods. In: Augmented Humans 2023, Glasgow, UK, 12-14 Mar 2023, pp. 357-359. ISBN 9781450399845 (doi: 10.1145/3582700.3583698)

Abstract

Thermal cameras have become portable enough to integrate into wearables, such as glasses, and can be used maliciously to infer passwords observing heat traces left on keyboards, keypads and screens. While prior work showed how AI-driven approaches can be used to further enhance the effectiveness of these attacks, we use similar approaches to detect vulnerable interfaces and obfuscate heat traces to defend against thermal attacks. At our Augmented Humans 2023 demo, attendees will have the chance to use a thermal camera to observe thermal traces on a keyboard, and observe how machine learning can both automatically identify keys pressed based and identify, then obfuscate, thermal images of a keyboard to prevent thermal attacks. This demo will provoke thought and discussion about the security risks presented by discrete, wearable thermal cameras and how these risks can be mitigated by both designers and users.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the EPSRC (EP/V008870/1), and the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity,which is also funded by the EPSRC (EP/S035362/1).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Alotaibi, Norah Mohsen T and Islam, Mr Md Shafiqul and Macdonald, Mr Shaun and Khamis, Dr Mohamed
• Authors: Macdonald, S. A., Alotaibi, N., Islam, M. S., and Khamis, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• ISBN: 9781450399845
• Published Online: 14 March 2023
• Copyright Holders: © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
• First Published: First published in AHs '23: Proceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Related URLs

• Organisation

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
310627		TAPS: Assessing, Mitigating and Raising Awareness of the Security and Privacy Risks of Thermal Imaging	Mohamed Khamis	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/V008870/1	Computing Science
313490		Preventing THErmal ATtacks using AI-driven Approaches	Mohamed Khamis	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	5676417	Computing Science