A Novel Approach of Mutual Authentication for Restricted User Forums of Social Network Sites

Social Network Sites (SNS) have become amazingly popular. Based on regional. Social and vested interests, restricted forums within SNS have gained popularity in recent times. Conflicts exist between usability of these sites versus security to protect user information. This is more pronounced in restricted user forums of SNS. The paper attempts to critically examine the merits and demerits of existing authentication methods so as to suggest a novel security approach for restricted forums of SNS. The proposed method by the authors has not compromised security akin to usability. The main demonstration on the theme of the research work is the role played by a Central Agency (CA) to control the security as well as usability issues. It is suggested to declare the admin of any SNS to play this role of the proposed CA.