An Improved Password-authentication Model for Access Control in Connected Systems

Data breaches and information theft are among the major challenges confronting the legitimate information system user in the 21st century. In recent times, following the deepening of the digital space, mobile computing devices have become convenient resources to drive most day-to-day socioeconomic efforts. These devices are valuable as they host sensitive data, which if compromised may result to economic chaos. Consequently, strengthening access control measures becomes crucial. This study focuses on the strengths of the traditional password authentication mechanisms used on information systems. It identified the weaknesses and proposes a two-part improved password authentication model. The object-oriented methodology is adopted to analyse the components of the proposed password authentication cycle including the flow of activities, and the security relationships. Following a detailed analysis, we specify a simple algorithm to guide the implementation of the model.