13-06-2013, 02:54 PM
BIOMETRICS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIOMETRICS.doc (Size: 248.5 KB / Downloads: 24)
Abstract
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analysing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.
INTRODUCTION
Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are; face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases, the need for highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent.
Biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions and personal data privacy. The need for biometrics can be found in federal, state and local governments, in the military, and in commercial applications. Enterprise-wide network security infrastructures, government IDs, secure electronic banking, investing and other financial transactions, retail sales, law enforcement, and health and social services are already benefiting from these technologies.
HISTORY OF BIOMETRICS:
The ancient Egyptians and the Chinese played a large role in biometrics' history. Although biometric technology seems to belong in the twenty-first century, the history of biometrics goes back thousands of years. Today, the focus is on using biometric face recognition and identifying characteristics to stop terrorism and improve security measures. Once an individual is matched against a template, or sample, in the database, a security alert goes out to the authorities. A person's space between the eyes, ears and nose provides most of the identifying data.
The ACLU and other civil liberties groups are against the widespread use of these biometric technologies, although they acknowledge the necessity of their presence in airports and after the London bombings. Biometric technologies also need to achieve greater standardization and technological innovations to be recognized as a trustworthy identity authentication solution.
The Acceptance of the Use of Biometrics
The main concern for clients of biometrics devices is the accuracy of measurability, and cost effectiveness. Again, as technology improves and costs decrease, identification and verification systems will be implemental by industries who find it in their best interest (cost vs. necessity) to safeguard their data and assets.
The main concerns for the general public acceptance of the voluntary use of biometrics identification are: privacy, necessity and identity protection. Many individuals are concerned that information collected about them could be used against them such as medical records preventing them from the ability to get health or critical illness insurance. The other concern about biometrics is the information getting into the wrong hands. This being said, when the convenience of the use of these devices is met with the confidence in their effectiveness and secure-ability they will become culturally accepted.
Conclusion:
Even if the accuracy of the biometric techniques is not perfect yet, there are many mature biometric systems available now. Proper design and implementation of the biometric system can indeed increase the overall security, especially the smartcard based solutions seem to be very promising. Making a secure biometric systems is, however, not as easy as it might appear. The word biometrics is very often used as a synonym for the perfect security. This is a misleading view. There are numerous conditions that must be taken in account when designing a secure biometric system. First, it is necessary to realize that biometrics are not secrets. This implies be careful that biometric measurements cannot be used as capability tokens and it is not secure to generate any cryptographic keys from them. Second, it is necessary to trust the input device and make the communication link secure.