Biometrics : Human Physical Features

It is important to note that the main applications of biometrics are utilized for preventing fraud and ensuring security. The use of biometrics has increased tremendously but so has social, ethical, privacy, practical and even political issues associated with it (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). Following is the detail regarding its ethical and privacy issue implications.

The thing with biometrics is that it works great only if the verifier can verify two things: Firstly, that the biometric to be used has come from the intended person at the time of verification, and Secondly, which the biometric should match with the master biometric entry in the file database. If the system can't do that, it can't work. Biometrics are good in uniquely identifying the people, butat the same time they are not secrets and cannot be trusted [1].

Biometrics is a method of identifying an individual based on characteristics that they possess, typically physiological features such as a fingerprint, hand, iris, retina, face, voice, and even DNA. Some methods of biometrics security even use multiple physiological features or multimodal biometrics to provide superior security than a single form of biometrics can provide. Why are biometrics important in the field of information security? Biometrics provide a remarkable amount of security for information because biometrics are unique to each person, and thus cannot be lost, copied, or shared with another individual. This security allows for biometrics to provide a means to reliability authenticate personnel. The importance of biometrics can be further divided into the history of biometrics and why it was devised, past implementations of biometrics, current implementations of biometrics, and future implementations of biometrics.

Identification processes are significantly more complex and error prone than verification processes. Biometrics technologies are indicators of authentication assurance with results based on a predetermined threshold with measurable False Accept Rates and False Reject Rates.

Biometrics is a piece of technology shown off in BTTF2 and now biometrics are almost being used in our everyday lives. People have it on their phones and sometimes even check into work with them. The problem is people place their hands everywhere making it easy to find them. Basically ruining the whole concept of safety with biometrics. For example, Magaly Ramirez, a student

The use of fingerprinting as a means of identification was born out of the need of law enforcement officials to have permanent records that could determine if a convict had been previously arrested or imprisoned. Before the advent of fingerprinting, law enforcement used a number of different methods to try to accomplish this. Ancient civilizations would tattoo or physically maim prisoners. In more recent times, daguerreotyping (that is, photographing) was used, but proved to be less than reliable, because people had the ability to dramatically alter their appearance (Skopitz). As a result, this method too, became obsolete with the discovery of fingerprinting, an absolutely infallible

Alphonse Bertillon devised a system simply called, The Bertillon System. This was a first attempt at criminal identification and was thought to be reliable and accurate. Bertillon developed an anthropometric system of physical measurements of body parts, especially components of the head and face. This system was used primarily to determine if a person in custody had committed a previous crime. Archives of these records began to be compiled. A form of this system is still used today, but we now call them “mugshots”. (Bertillon System of Criminal Identification, 2011). Although mugshots are still used today, anthropometry was

Biometrics is the process of collecting, processing and storing a person’s physical characteristic to be utilized for identification authentication. By utilizing this technology, the government can register each person, link information to each of our unique identifiers from multiple sources, and use the resulting repot to continually assess the amount of risk each person poses to the state. Biometrics is becoming more popular as it allows positive identification by characteristics such as retinal scans, fingerprints, voice recognition, digital photographs, and other means. The United States Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program, began in 2004, is registering most visitors to the United States by photograph and digital finger scans; the results are stored in a central database as well as in a computer chip in each visitor’s visa. This could result in a worldwide identification system for

Bertillonage was a process of recording criminal’s body measurements to keep on file with photographs and other detailed information. This became vastly popular until fingerprinting was recognized as a more effective method. Once this was discovered he incorporated fingerprints for only the right hand in his processing. One obstacle that proved to be a problem with Bertillonage

We live in a world today, in which technology moves at a very rapid pace. Many of these technological advances can be used to make our everyday lives easier and safer. One of these new technologies is Biometrics. Biometrics is the process of measuring a person’s physical properties. This would include measuring things like fingerprints, retinas, odor, vein structure on the back of the hand and many other things. Biometrics is a very important topic because it would create better security precautions for certain places that need to be secure. Biometrics will make our society safer by only allowing authorized people out of secure facilities and by keeping the unauthorized people out. Throughout the rest of this

“Fingerprint recognition is one of the divorce inference using the impressions made by the minute ridge formations or patterns found on the fingertips. No two people have exactly the same arrangement of the ridge patterns, and the remaining patterns of any one individual unchanged. Fingerprints infallible provide a means of personal identification. Other personal characteristics may change, but not fingerprints”. (1)

Fingerprinting is used for many things, such as a robbery, or at a crime scene. Fingerprints were first discovered in 1870 by Alphonse Bertillon, who was a French anthropologist. In 1892, Juan Vucetich had made the first criminal report using a fingerprint. In 1905 America used fingerprints for identification. When America started using fingerprints for identification they had to match the fingerprints manually when needed. When technology was able to enter fingerprints, and match them with anonymous ones, it helped identification immensely.

Bertillon felt that in the beginning that fingerprints were not very practical due to the lack of classification system. He eventually included fingerprints on the end of his anthropometry cards as a final check of identifications. Anthropometry was discarded in France and replaced by fingerprint identification upon Bertillon’s death in 1914.

You have seen biometric technology in the films Mission: Impossible and Gattaca. The technology has also graced the covers of many weekly news magazines. But many people, even though the technology has been widely talked about for the last half decade, are still surprisingly unaware of what biometrics are and why the technology is so important for computer security and personal identification.

Biometrics is used in many places and there is a bright future for them. Coca Cola has recently replaced time card system with hand scanning machines. Finger print scanners are being used in many states of the US. They have been used to trace social welfare fraud. An iris pattern identification system is being used in Cook County, Illinois to ensure that right people are released from jail. ATM machines have been installed with finger scanners to prevent theft and fraud in Indiana (Jain, 2005).