Security Flaws And Privacy Concerns Regarding Biometric Authentication Systems

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.

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

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.

Technology is always improving, and new software is always being developed. One of these new technologies that have been developed is biometrics. Biometrics is the process by which a person's unique physical and other traits are detected and recorded by an electronic device or system as means of confirming identity (Dictionary.com, 2013). In recent years, the FBI has employed new biometrics technology.

To what extent should governments and companies be using biometric information obtained from facial recognition technology for surveillance and convenience in identifying individuals in society? This article discusses the legislature that must be implemented to protect our right to privacy. We will reach a conclusion by further analyzing the benefits and the risks of the new technology, evaluating the privacy issues that accompany, and discussing faults in the

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

Jeremy Wickins writes, “The Ethics of Biometrics: The Risk of Social Exclusion from the Widespread Use of Electronic Identification.” In the article “The Ethics of Biometrics: The Risk of Social Exclusion from the Widespread Use of Electronic Identification,” Wickins writes the possible segregation of people when biometrically scanned due to the biometrics systematic flaws. Jeremy Wickins attempts to prove that biometric identification system is flawed because of not being able to encompass the whole populace for some being disabled, religious preferences, not following protocols, not willing to corporate, and the homeless. Thus, Wickins claims the biometric data entered into the system is incorrect, creating false reporting which in turn denies

The requirements for the adoption of the fingerprint biometrics technology will require software to be installed to interface with the electronic health records and financial system along with several biometric fingerprint scanners and readers. The IT Department will be required to test the biometric technology effectiveness. Once, approved by the IT department and Security Officer, there will be required staff training on the new technology. Then patients will be informed of the new technology and the Long-Care Faculty’s new procedures. As required, there will be an enrollment period where nurses will begin scanning each patient index fingerprint into the system; once the enrollment period is complete, the usage of the biometric technology can go live with each patient being able to scan their fingerprint to allow their providers access to their medical record data (Chandra, Durand & Weaver,2008)

One of the most important ways that biometric technology is impacting security lies within the confines of computer information systems. The government, the military, and large corporations need to have complete assurance that the data and information stored on their networks and databases are only available to users who have been authorized to view such material.

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.

So, they create short, simple, and insecure passwords that are susceptible to attack. Which make textual passwords easy to break and vulnerable to dictionary or brute force attacks. Graphical passwords schemes have been proposed. The strength of graphical passwords comes from the fact that users can recall and recognize pictures more than words. Most graphical passwords are vulnerable for shoulder surfing attacks, where an attacker can observe or record the legitimate user’s graphical password by camera. Token based systems such as ATMs are widely applied in banking systems and in laboratories entrances as a mean of authentication. However, Smart cards or tokens are vulnerable to loss or theft. Moreover, the user has to carry the token whenever access required. Biometric scanning is your "natural" signature and Cards or Tokens prove your validity. But some people hate the fact to carry around their cards, some refuse to undergo strong IR exposure to their retinas (Biometric scanning).