What is information security
Biometric Technologies
Many different types of unique physiological or behavioral characteristics exist for humans. Some of the more traditional uses of these biometric methods for identification or verification include:
• Fingerprint recognition—Fingerprint recognition systems rely on the biometric device’s ability to distinguish the unique impressions of ridges and valleys made by an individual’s finger
• Hand geometry—Hand geometry solutions take more than 90-dimensional measurements to record an accurate spatial representation of an individual’s hand.
• Retina scanning—Retinal scanning involves an electronic scan of the retina, the innermost layer of the wall of the eyeball.
• Iris scanning—Iris scanning uses a camera mounted between three and 10 feet away from the person to take a high-definition photograph of the individual’s eyes. It then analyzes 266 different points of data from the trabecular meshwork of the iris.
• Facial recognition—Facial recognition attempts to identify a subject based on facial characteristics such as eye socket position, space between cheekbones, etc.
• Signature dynamics—Dynamic signature verification not only compares the signature itself but also marks changes in speed, pressure, and timing that occur during the signing.
• Keystroke dynamics—Keystroke dynamics technology measures dwell time (the length of time a person holds down each key) as well as flight time (the time it takes to move between keys). Taken over the course of several login sessions, these two metrics produce a measurement of rhythm unique to each user.
• Voice recognition—Voice recognition biometrics digitize a profile of a person’s speech into a template voiceprint and stores it as a table of binary numbers. During authentication, the spoken passphrase is compared to the previously stored template.
Other technologies that are emerging or that are being studied include vein patterns, facial thermography, DNA, sweat pores, hand grip, fingernail bed, body odor, ear shape, gait, skin luminescence, brain wave pattern, footprint recognition and foot dynamics
Biometric technologies can be combined to provide enhanced security. This combined use of two or more biometric technologies in one application is called a multimodal biometric system. A multimodal system allows for an even greater level of assurance of a proper match in verification and identification systems.
Business Drivers of Biometrics
Increased Security and Convenience
Biometrics technology is designed to provide a greater degree of security than traditional authentication techniques since the biometric credentials are difficult to steal, lose, forget or compromise. Biometrics may be leveraged as a complementary form of authentication to increase security for a critical resource. In addition, biometrics systems are designed to improve the verifiability of IT audit trails and user accountability because the technology provides a higher level of confidence in the identity verification process.
Convenience is another goal. Unlike traditional authentication methods, a biometric is based on a user characteristic that is not easily lost or forgotten. For that reason, users would not have to remember as many passwords or worry about misplacing authentication tokens.
Enterprise Applicability
Biometric systems can be applied to areas across the enterprise requiring logical or physical access solutions. Biometric authentication readers for workstations can be integrated with desktop applications for logical authentication to provide a stronger alternative to a username and password. Biometric devices can also be used to control physical access to buildings, safes or rooms.
Biometric authentication integration efforts are becoming easier with the vendor adoption of industry standards, such as Biometric Application Programming Interface (BioAPI) and the Common Biometric Exchange File Format (CBEFF). The BioAPI is designed to provide a cross-platform interface that simplifies development and standardizes programmatic interaction with biometric devices. The CBEFF was developed to facilitate improved interoperability between biometrics systems and simplify hardware and software integration.
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