Abhijit Pandit : IT Security and YOU !

Biometrics methods have been in use for centuries. Biometrics refers to methods of recognizing a person using physiological or behavioral characteristics. Physiological characteristics include finger prints, hand geometry, iris recognition, facial recognition and many more. Behavioral characteristics, as the name suggested, are related to the behavior of a person - Gait analysis to study how a person moves, how does a person write his signature are some examples. Though Voice is a physiological characteristic of a person, voice recognition is based on the study of how the person speaks, so it is considered as a behavioral type.

In the IT-enabled world, traditional means such as passwords, hardware tokens for achieving secure identification and personal verification are becoming less and less effective. Passwords can be shared, broken, observed and most often, forgotten ! Hardware tokens can be lost, stolen and sometimes duplicated. So, there is an increased interest in going from these "what-you-know" and "what-you-have" based solutions to the "what-you-are" methods. Advances in processing power of hardware, coupled with reduced cost of hardware are making many of these biometric solutions a feasible option for many organizations. Here, we will take a brief look at a few of these biometric technologies and list a few pros and cons of each.

Finger Print

Pros :

• Matured technology based on years of research & understanding
• Do not change naturally
• Has wide acceptance in the security community
• The equipment is relatively low-priced compared to other biometric system

Cons :

• Can be altered / worn out over time
• Vulnerable to noise and distortion brought on by dirt and twists.
• Some people may feel offended about placing their fingers on the same place where many other people have continuously touched.
• Some people have damaged or eliminated fingerprints

Voice Recognition

Pros :

• Non-invasive
• Distinctive in terms of vocal chords, vocal tract, sinuses, and mouth tissues

Cons :

• Easily corrupted with noise, so may not be suitable for use in public places
• Probability of High false rates (positive and negative) due to physical ailments (cold & cough, sinus problems, etc.)

Iris Scan

Pros :

• Very high accuracy
• Does not change over time

Cons :

• Acquiring image requires proper alignment and positioning
• Result may get affected due to pupil size change

Gait Analysis

Pros :

• Non-invasive
• Can discriminate using various actions such as  walking, jogging, running)

Cons :

• Can be altered by observation
• May not be applied to smaller devices such as mobiles or desktops
• Still under research

2D Facial Recognition

Pros :

• Needs lesser storage space for identification templates (as compared to 3D)
• Faster in identification process, requires lesser memory

Cons :

• 2D images contain limited information
• Sensitive to illumination, orientation, facial expressions and make ups
• Will not work when using a mask of other face-covering veils

3D Facial Recognition

Pros :

• With the ability to capture and store more information, 3D provides more accurate representation of the face
• Much better handling of illumination and orientation-related readings

Cons :

• Higher computational cost due to need for processing large amount of data
• Will not work when using a mask of other face-covering veils

Selection of a particular biometric technology for identifying and authenticating users depends of a number of factors such as security requirements of the application under consideration, the environment in which the users will be authenticated, the frequency of usage, type of access required, cost factors, etc.