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Biometrics is it right for your Organization.
Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are; face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of medium to highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases, the need for secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent.
Biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions and personal data privacy. The need for biometrics can be found in federal, state and local governments, in the military, and in commercial applications. Enterprise-wide network security infrastructures, government IDs, secure electronic banking, investing and other financial transactions, retail
sales, law enforcement, and health and social services are already benefiting from these technologies. Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation,
network, and domain access, single sign-on, application logon, data protection,
remote access to resources, transaction security and Web security. Trust in these electronic transactions is essential to the healthy growth of the global economy. Utilized alone or integrated with other technologies such as computer applications, smart cards, encryption keys and digital signatures, biometrics are set to pervade nearly all aspects of the economy and our daily lives. Utilizing biometrics for personal authentication is becoming convenient and considerably more accurate than current methods (such as the utilization of passwords or PINs). This is because biometrics links the event to a particular individual (a password or token may be used by someone other than the authorized user), is convenient (nothing to carry or
remember), accurate (it provides for positive authentication), can provide an audit trail and is becoming socially acceptable and inexpensive.
Certain types of biometric input devices can be subject to error reading. In the case of finger print recognition, the user must have a clean finger with no glue or other matter on it and place his finger into the
devices in the same direction. The device then stores the picture of his fingerprint on a computer file, digitizes it like you see on CSI on TV, and then compares it to a known database. Typically 7 confirmed recognition points are sufficient to
validate the individual. This device can be fooled by a rubber finger where the secure print is copied and a mold is made and then used.
Full hand recognition uses the algorithm that no two hands have exactly the same measurements and fingerprints. This type of recognition requires considerably more computer horsepower and can still be fooled, but with great difficulty as a cast then rubber impression must be made.
Iris recognition is one of the most fool proof technologies currently available, and one of the most expensive. This combines computer vision, pattern recognition, statistical inference, and optics. Its purpose is real-time, high confidence recognition of a person's identity by mathematical analysis of the random patterns that are visible within the iris of an eye from some distance. Because the iris is a protected internal organ whose random texture is stable throughout life, it can serve as a kind of living passport or a living password that one need not remember but can always present. Because the randomness of iris patterns has very high dimensionality, recognition decisions are made with confidence levels high enough to support rapid and reliable exhaustive searches,
provided you have enough computer power.
In summing up, there are many types of security login options to choose from,
your individual choice must be driven by the degree of need and the available
funds to implement it. If your exposure to theft is very high, or you have a
highly proprietary product, choose the highest levels available.
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