Methods for secure authentication

A method for distributed, mutual authentication of a plurality of parties, comprising:

• locally storing, by each party a segment of a generator matrix, plus a segment of a parity check matrix, of a linear binary code, wherein, in each authentication session, one of the plurality of parties acts as a master;
• and
• locally generating, by each party for the purpose of mutual authentication, as coordinated by the master, a segment of a code-word, randomly selected by the master, from the linear binary code;
• gathering a plurality of binary segments at the master through a secure communications channel;
• and
• concatenating, by the master, the plurality of binary segments received at the master, the concatenating including a binary segment belonging to the master;
• and
• verifying at the master whether a result of the concatenation of the plurality of segments results in a valid code-word.

A server comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that are operative, when executed by the processor, to:
• interact with a user in real time to collect verification data for authentication by requiring the user to take an action in real time;
• and
• compare a detected reaction by the user in response to the requirement to take the action to a predetermined metric;
• and
• determine, based on the comparison, to the predetermined metric, whether to authenticate the user.