Biometrics
Biometrics is described as the use of human physical features to verify identity and has been in use since the beginning of recorded history. Only recently, biometrics has been used in today’s high-tech society for the prevention of identity theft. In this paper, we will be understanding biometrics, exploring the history of biometrics, examples of today’s current technology and where biometrics are expected to go in the future.
By definition, “biometrics” (Woodward, Orlans, and Higgins, 2003) is the science of using biological properties to identify individuals; for example, fingerprints, retina scans, and voice recognition. We’ve all seen in the movies, how the heroes and the villains have used other’s fingerprints and
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European Biometrics Forum is established. US patent for iris recognition expires.
Biometrics began with the inking of the fingers and feet and pressing those inked parts onto paper. Today, law enforcement agencies are able to utilize biometric tools on the molecular level to pinpoint criminals when no other evidence exists. In between these two extremes fall a whole range of techniques used for identification.
The most basic of the techniques is the fingerprint and palm recognition. These methods, while strong, still have their weaknesses. This led to looking for next level of identification just under the skin by mapping the vascular structure of a person’s hand. Each person has a unique, intricate pattern of blood vessels that is virtually impossible to replicate since blood vessels have to be grown and cannot constructed. Another method of biometric identification is through dental records. Dental records are commonly used to identify a human by comparing the dental features (i.e., tooth size and placement, dental work, oral injuries, etc.) and whose identity cannot be determined through conventional means. Such situations would include a person who’s been burn, been dismembered, or has severely decomposed. This method of identification has taken on such an important role that “Disaster Dental Identification Teams” have been developed to assist with identification following disaster situations.
Biometrics technology aims at utilizing major and distinctive characteristics such as behavioral or biological, for the sake of positively indentifying people. With the help of a combination of hardware and specific identifying sets of rules, a basic human attribute, automated biometric recognition mimics to distinguish and categorize other people as individual and unique. But the challenges surrounding biometrics are great as well.
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].
I concur with you on the use of biometrics by the government, and especially facial recognition to apprehend criminals. The recent rise in criminal cases can be halted if such a system is deployed. Biometrics can never go wrong and is in fact one of the most accurate ways of identifying people. If the government can be able to launch a system that can capture personal specifications, it can be really helpful.
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
Biometric Authentication refers to the usage of software that looks for physical markers to allow access to a system. Some of the most commonly used physical markers are fingerprints, face-recognition, voice-recognition, and iris-recognition (Williams & Sawyer, 2015). As no two humans are exactly alike biometics are less likely to be hacked, although it is not impossible.
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
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)
I do agree with Pam Dixon that biometric databases could be subpoenaed by police officers and that it would violate consumer’s privacy. Currently, law enforcement are starting to adapt their surveillance systems to also use biometrics to help recognize and locate criminals with facial recognition software. There are programs from both the Department of Homeland Security’s Biometric Optical Surveillance System and Department of Defense researchers that are taking this to a whole new level by creating a digital biometric file that includes your iris as well as technology that can do this without your permission from 10 meters away. The FBI is also developing a database that will be able to store information such as palm prints, iris scans, voice
Facial recognition has been proven to advance in areas where DNA and fingerprint have both fallen short. The complications that DNA and fingerprint possess is these two identification tools will not always be present in a scene, also other errors such as, cross contamination may occur and false evidence may be presented, as an ill attempt to cover up a mistake or taint evidence. From this information, it can be inferred that the error rate of DNA compared to facial recognition is high.
Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.
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.
Biometric technologies are getting better and finely tuned. The rate of false readings and errors has sharply fallen. However it still requires careful consideration and planning to implement a biometric identification system. They are most costly and complicated to implement as compared with other authentication systems. A proper evaluation of the system is important before purchasing any biometric system. A thorough risk analysis is necessary. In many cases biometrics may be overkill. Biometrics must be used if there is high level of risk involved. Customer acceptance is also important when logging on to company websites. Home users might not be ready to install biometrics on home computers for online banking.