Abstract
Currently, mobile smartphone devices contain a critical and sensitive data. In addition, they provide access to other data, on cloud for example, and to services somewhere on the Internet. Mobile authentication aims to protect against unauthorized access. The current operating systems of mobile smart phones offer different authentication mechanisms. Nonetheless, in some situations, these mechanisms are vulnerable and in other situations, they are not user friendly enough, thus not widely adopted. In this chapter, we will give an overview of the current mobile authentication mechanisms: traditional and biometric, and their most commonly used techniques in the mobile authentication environment. In addition, the pro and cons of these techniques will be highlighted. Moreover, a comparison among these techniques will be conducted. The chapter also discuss the other techniques which could much suitable for the current environment of the mobile applications. Furthermore, it discuss a number of open issues of the mobile authentication which needs further research in the future to improve the adoption of the biometric authentication in the smartphones environment.