Below is a proposal for dealing with a situation of website security. I am wondering whether it seems feasible, from both a technical and usability point of view. I want to make sure that the proposal does contain any glaring errors.
- The website
The website in question is a school website where students may purchase various items. These students get an account on the website with a username and password, which they can use to login. Once they login, they have access to protected pages with private content which are unavailable to the public at large.
- The security concern
The owners of the website wish to prevent a situation where a single student signs up on the website, obtains a username and password, and then circulates those credentials to a circle of friends who are then able to login to the website and illegally view the private content.
- The solution
The central idea we have come up with to deal with this security problem is to permit each student to login to the website on two devices only. Once a student logs in on two different devices, they are restricted to those two devices. If they then attempt to login on a third device, the system would simply not permit them to do so. It is our understanding that other websites offering private content, such as Netflix, use such an approach.
- Implementation
Two ideas come to mind to implement the above security measure: IP address and cookies. We rule out IP addresses which can change, and choose cookies. Websites such as amazon.com allow their customers to login once, and then whenever they return to the website, they are always recognized. This is almost certainly achieved through cookies.
Thus each time a student logs in, we will store on their device a cookie. And we will also store this cookie in our database under that student's account. Thus each time a student logs in on any device, we will check whether the device they are currently logging in on contains the cookie we have stored for that student. If it does not, we will know that the student is logging in on a different device. We will thus be able to know how many devices the student is trying to login on.
- Drawbacks
We have identified at least three possible drawbacks to this approach:
- Clearing cookies. People can, for a variety of reasons, choose to clear the cookies from their computer.
- A bona fide person may occasionally not have access to their usual device, and wish to login on a different computer.
- People do purchase new devices from time to time.
- These are examples of situations where a bona fide user, for legitimate reasons, wishes to login, but will be unable to, due to the website's security restriction of two devices.
We have some ideas as to how to build logic into the system to deal with such situations, which we may implement in the future, but for the time being, we feel that such situations are sufficiently rare that we do not need to handle them programmatically.
Rather, for now, in the event that a student is locked out, they will get a screen with a message explaining why we have not allowed them into the system, and a button which they can click on which will automatically generate an email to the site administrators.
The email will inform them that a student wishes to login on a third device. The administrators can then contact the student, and if they are satisfied that the need is bona fide they will be able to take steps from the CMS to allow that student in.
The size of the student body is sufficiently manageable that the above approach should be feasible.
- Fair warning
We will inform the students of these security measures when their account is activated in order to prevent unpleasant surprises.