Biometrics Demystified: What You Need To Know

From fingerprints and retina scans to DNA and gesture recognition, the technology is advancing while costs are declining. Heres what you need to know.

Download the entire Nov. 21, 2011 issue of
InformationWeek
, distributed in an all-digital format as part of our
Green Initiative
(Registration required.)
We will plant a tree for each of the first 5,000 downloads.
Rising threat levels, increasing interconnectivity of systems, and the growing volume and value of data held by computers connected to the Internet have data owners re-evaluating access control methods. They need to do more than just check that authorized users have the correct login information; they also want to ensure that those people are actually the rightful owners of the login information theyre using. Biometrics is the only way to do this.
With biometric authentication, every individual is unique. Most people are familiar with techniques such as fingerprint and facial recognition, which grant access based on physiological characteristics, but certain behavioral characteristics, such as typing rhythm, gait, and voice, also can be used.
User names and password combinations can be guessed or easily obtained by imposters. Tokens can be lost, forgotten, and stolen. But criminals cant guess fingerprints, and users cant forget or misplace their fingerprints. Physical attributes cant be faked the way ID cards can. And once a person has authenticated himself using biometrics, he can be tied directly to any actions he performs. This isnt the case with other form of authentication.
Biometric systems also have low administrative overhead. No more password resets. No more redistributing and renewing tokens, and no more revoking and replacing lost or stolen tokens. Most network operating systems allow for the easy integration of biometric authentication to replace and supplement passwords.
How Biometrics Works
Many people are under the misconception that biometric authentication involves direct comparison of the biometric trait--comparing an actual image of a fingerprint with stored fingerprints. What actually happens is that the device capturing the image creates a numerical value to represent the fingerprint--a digital hash of distinct characteristics. This value is sent to the authentication server for comparison with stored values.
With facial recognition, the camera captures an image of the face and extracts relevant characteristics, such as the distance between the eyes, width of the nose, shape of the cheekbones, and length of the jawline. These values are used to create a template.
To read the rest of the article,
Download the Nov. 21, 2011 issue of
InformationWeek

Strategy: Biometrics
Get the Best of Biometric Authentication

Our full report on
biometrics
is free with registration.
This 16 page report includes:
More detail on the types of biometrics technologies available
Insight into the workings of the authentication process
Performance metrics you should consider
Get This
And
All Our Reports
Michael Cobb is founder and managing director of CobWeb Applications, a consulting firm that helps companies secure their IT infrastructures. Write to us at
[email protected]
.

Last News
▸ Travel agency fined £150,000 for breaking Data Protection Act. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ 7 arrested, 3 more charged in StubHub cyber fraud ring. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Nigerian scammers now turning into mediocre malware pushers. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
Biometrics Demystified: What You Need To Know