Analysing security and privacy issues of using e-mail address as identity Online publication date: Thu, 27-Nov-2014
by Lei Jin; Hassan Takabi; James B.D. Joshi
International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity (IJIPSI), Vol. 1, No. 1, 2011
Abstract: Nowadays, many websites allow or require users to use their e-mail addresses either as identity or for other purposes. Although username-based identity problems resulting from users' behaviours have been a research focus for quite some time, the serious issues of using e-mail address as identity and the associated online behaviours of users have not been well investigated. In this paper, we discuss and analyse security and privacy problems resulting from using e-mail address as identity via well-designed user behaviour survey and by investigating websites' design schemes. Our results illustrate that using e-mail address as identity poses high security and privacy risks. This is mainly because of the multiple usages of e-mail addresses and users' improper online habits. Moreover, we discuss drawbacks of existing solutions for e-mail address as identity and related password problems, and present potential solutions that may be used to secure online identity management systems in future.
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