Cătălin IAPĂ, Public Dissertation of PhD Thesis

Thesis Title: ”Free-text keystroke dynamics data set and algorithms for continuous authentication in educational platforms with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)”

PhD Board:

• Chair: Professor Dr. Eng.  Horia CIOCÂRLIE  (Politehnica University Timisoara)
• PhD Supervisor: Professor Emeritus Dr. Eng. Vladimir Ioan CREȚU (Politehnica University Timisoara)
• Scientific Referees:
  • Professor Dr. Eng. Dorian GORGAN (Technical University of Cluj-Napoca )
  • Professor Dr. Eng. Viorel NEGRU  (Vest University of Timisoara)
  • Professor Dr. Eng. Nicolae ROBU (Politehnica University Timisoara)

This paper focuses on the continuous authentication of a computer user based on keystroke dynamics, the way to type on the keyboard. During the research, an authentication algorithm based on keystroke dynamics was developed, a data set regarding the typing mode was collected from 80 volunteers, two modified metrics were proposed to obtain better performances of the authentication algorithm and a data structure was proposed to store the necessary information of the users.

This method of authentication justifies its attention especially in online educational platforms, platforms that experienced a very large increase in 2020, due to the relocation of most courses in the online environment, a restriction generated by the COVID-19 crisis.