Authenticating public terminals

Automatic teller machines, Internet kiosks etc. are examples of public untr usted terminals which are used to access computer systems. One of the secur ity concerns in such systems is the so called fake terminal attack: the att acker sets up a fake terminal and fools unsuspecting users into revealing s ensitive information, such as PINs or private e-mail, in their attempt to u se these terminals. In this paper, we examine this problem in different scenarios and propose a ppropriate solutions. Our basic approach is to find ways for a user to auth enticate a public terminal before using it to process sensitive information . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.