BACKGROUND: Over the years, attention has been focused on digital banking and financial technology with little or no attention being paid to biometric banking technology. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate the need for security and simplicity in the authentication of retail payments, digital banking and financial technology through the application of biometric systems. METHOD: The study employed quantitative research methodology and a response rate of 52% was achieved. A set of questionnaires was distributed for data collection. RESULTS: The study's findings indicated it is imperative for all businesses that participate in financial businesses to fully implement the best possible security measures or systems to ensure or enhance security for financial business activities CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that businesses must adopt the new innovative and secured mechanisms of financial dealings to enhance innovation, security and flexibility.

NoSQL databases have gained a lot of popularity over the last few years. They are now used in many new system implementations that work with vast amounts of data. Such data will typically also include sensitive information that needs to be secured. NoSQL databases are also underlying a number of cloud implementations which are increasingly being used to store sensitive information by various organisations. This has made NoSQL databases a new target for hackers and other state sponsored actors. Forensic examinations of compromised systems will need to be conducted to determine what exactly transpired and who was responsible. This paper examines specifically if NoSQL databases have security features that leave relevant traces so that accurate forensic attribution can be conducted. The seeming lack of default security measures such as access control and logging has prompted this examination. A survey into the top ranked NoSQL databases was conducted to establish what authentication and authorisation features are available. Additionally the provided logging mechanisms were also examined since access control without any auditing would not aid forensic attribution tremendously. Some of the surveyed NoSQL databases do not provide adequate access control mechanisms and logging features that leave relevant traces to allow forensic attribution to be done using those. The other surveyed NoSQL databases did provide adequate mechanisms and logging traces for forensic attribution, but they are not enabled or configured by default. This means that in many cases they might not be available, leading to insufficient information to perform accurate forensic attribution even on those databases.

The present written paper offers the mechanisms for the set-up and monitoring of a network Wi-Fi in the company, supporting a high security level and control from all the referent devices to the aforementioned wireless net. WPA2-Enterprise, as well as the possibility of changing their firmware and operating system toward OpenWRT for a bigger efficiency and certainty of the own hardware does use of wireless routers with support of authentication itself. It explains him the starting of a RADIUS server with the freeradius software under the operating system GNU/Linux Debian Stretch. ElasticSearch, with a server also demonstrates the installation of a base server of data himself of card indexes log, Logstash and a visual display unit of data, Grafana. A system of authorization through certificate property of user is obtained and independent encryption for device.

El presente documento brinda los mecanismos para el montaje y monitoreo de una red Wi-Fi® en la empresa, abogando por un alto nivel de seguridad y control de todos los dispositivos referentes a dicha red inalámbrica. Se hace uso de routers inalámbricos con soporte de autenticación WPA2-Enterprise, así como la posibilidad de cambiar su firmware y sistema operativo hacia OpenWRT para una mayor eficiencia y seguridad del propio hardware. Se describe la puesta en marcha de un servidor RADIUS con el software freeradius bajo el sistema operativo GNU/Linux, en la distribución Debian en su versión stretch. También se demuestra la instalación de un servidor de base de datos ElasticSearch, con un servidor de ficheros log, Logstash y un visualizador de datos, Grafana. Se obtiene un sistema de autorización por certificado de usuario y cifrado independiente por dispositivo.

In almost all watermarking-based document authentication systems, the documents are considered as binary images and then, the watermark is embedded using some image watermarking algorithm. However actually important documents are saved using document file formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF) or Open Document Format (ODF), among others, because in general the file size is smaller compared with an image file, and also these are considered as more secure than other types of file format. However, the documents with these formats can also be maliciously modified for illegal purposes, making necessary the development of mechanisms that are able to detect such modifications. Considering the situations mentioned above, this paper proposes a document authentication scheme in which a watermark is directly embedded into the document file format as part of the document itself. The experimental results show a desirable performance of the proposed algorithm.

Nowadays, we can easily obtain variety of services through networks. But due to the open environment, networks are vulnerable to many security threats. The remote user authentication scheme is one of the most widely used mechanisms for servers to authorize users to access the services. In 2009, Ramasamy and Muniyandi proposed a discrete logarithm based remote authentication scheme with smart cards. Their scheme provides mutual authentication and withstands the denial of service attack, forgery attack and parallel session attack. In this article, we show that their scheme is not a practical solution for remote access. It lacks key agreement mechanism and users cannot choose or update passwords freely. Moreover, their scheme cannot resist the stolen-verifier attack, off-line guessing attack, impersonation attack and smart-card-loss-attack. We propose an improved scheme to remedy the drawbacks. The improved scheme has the merits of providing mutual authentication and key agreement, while forward and backward secrecy are ensured as well. The users can choose and update their passwords freely. Furthermore, the scheme can also withstand many attacks such as the smart-card-loss-attack, the replay attack, the off-line guessing attack, the insider attack, the impersonation attack and the parallel session attack.

In January 2005, the Mexican Tributary Administration System (SAT) introduced an official norm that stipulates how to generate electronic invoices that were termed by SAT, Comprobante Fiscal Digital (CFD). Supporting the CFD service implies the exchange of confidential information over Internet and other communication channels that are intrinsically highly vulnerable. Therefore, it becomes indispensable to incorporate to this service reliable and sound information security mechanisms. In the case of SAT's CFD, its security guarantees depend on customary cryptographic mechanisms such as, digital signatures, hash functions, etc. In this paper we point out several security flaws in the procedure specified by SAT for generating such electronic invoices. Furthermore, we provide recommendations for avoiding the security problems detected, which include the usage of more robust cryptographic mechanisms, alternative authentication protocols, time stamps authorities and a safe storage system.

En enero de 2005, el Gobierno mexicano a través del Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT), presentó una norma oficial que estipula cómo generar facturas electrónicas, las cuales recibieron el nombre oficial de Comprobante Fiscal Digital (CFD). El hecho de ofrecer el servicio de CFD implica el intercambio de información confidencial que debe viajar por Internet y otros canales de comunicación que son intrínsecamente altamente vulnerables. Por lo tanto, es indispensable incorporar a dicho servicio, herramientas de seguridad confiables y técnicamente sólidas. En el caso de los comprobantes fiscales digitales del SAT, su seguridad depende de mecanismos criptográficos tradicionales tales como, firmas digitales, funciones picadillo, etc. En este artículo se señalan fallas de seguridad en el procedimiento especificado por el SAT para la generación de sus facturas electrónicas. Aunado a esto, en este trabajo se dan algunas recomendaciones para eliminar los problemas de seguridad detectados, lo cual incluye, el uso de mecanismos criptográficos más robustos, protocolos de autentificación alternativos, autoridades que emitan estampillas de tiempo y un sistema de almacenamiento a largo plazo seguro.

In this paper historical aspects of analytical pyrolysis, the equipment used, the fundamentals and the mechanisms of pyrolysis of different polymeric materials are discussed. The latest work on analytical pyrolysis applied to various types of synthetic and natural samples is reviewed. Current applications of this technique that are discussed include identification of microorganisms, analysis of trace compounds by forensic laboratories, investigation of food and agricultural products, study of the chemical composition of wood, authentication and conservation of artworks, and the study of environmental and geochemical samples.