Multi-modal Ongoing Neural Authentication for Resource Constrained Hardware (MONARCH )

The Department of Defense faces a critical challenge in securing wearable and mobile devices that are essential to modern military operations. Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices remain one of the weakest links when it comes to cybersecurity, creating significant vulnerabilities in tactical environments. AIS and proposed subcontractors UNC and RIT propose MONARCH, a novel continuous authentication system leveraging D-Vector technology to provide persistent, zero-interaction security for defense equipment through the fusion of multiple behavioral biometric signals.  Current authentication approaches rely primarily on single-point methods such as passwords, physical tokens like CAC cards, or single-modality biometrics including fingerprints and facial recognition. These traditional methods prove inadequate in tactical environments where they disrupt operations by requiring explicit user interaction, remain vulnerable to social engineering, fail to detect unauthorized access post-authentication, and suffer from degraded and cumbersome performance in field conditions. The military requires a more robust, continuous authentication solution that maintains security without compromising operational effectiveness. The D-Vector system introduces three key innovations that directly address these challenges. First, the multi-modal fusion approach which currently combines continuous gait and keystroke behavioral patterns to achieve 97.5% authentication accuracy will be extended to include other modalities such as heart rate and GSR. This fusion architecture maintains security even when individual modes are compromised and functions transparently during normal device operation. Second, the lightweight implementation requires only existing device sensors and seeks to processes biometric data locally, consume minimal computational resources at less than 5% CPU utilization, and to operate effectively with limited training data requiring only 5 samples per modality. Additionally, the MONARCH system Additionally, the MONARCH system will implement a tiered authentication framework that dynamically adjusts access levels based on accumulated trust through multiple biometric modalities.