Biometric Security

Biometrics as a Key of Security

Biometrics technology is not a new concept; it is the oldest form of identification. As early as the 14th century, the Chinese were reportedly using fingerprint-like methods as a method of identifying of their children.

There are three basic, independent but related concepts of security (Jain et al, 1999):

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  Concept of Identification: Who you are.

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  Concept of Authentication: Proving whom you are.

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  Concept of Authorization: What you are allowed to do.

Recently, huge data transfer all over the word every day, therefore identity theft and the loss of data and related intellectual property are growing problems. Now each have multiple accounts and use multiple passwords on an ever-increasing number of computers and Web sites. Maintaining and managing access while protecting both the user's identity and the computer's data and systems has become increasingly difficult. Security is the concept of authentication - verifying that the user is who he claims to be. Biometric based authentication applications refer to three types of authentication (Delac & Grgic, 2004).

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  Something you know (most common used is a password or pin)

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  Something you have (tokens such as a smart card), and finally

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  Something you are (such as biometric).