Something You Are

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Any physical trait that can be reliably measured can be used to authenticate and is called a biometric. Biometric authentication is nothing new. In the opening paragraph of this chapter, biometrics were used to identify someone as a friend. This has gone on throughout history. If someone is authenticated based on some physical trait, then biometric recognition is in use.

Biometrics can be used for identification . A user makes no claims about who he/she is. A biometric comparison attempts to match an individual's biometric data against all the biometric data on file. This is what is referred to as one-to-many matching . One-to-many matching is used in the law enforcement world. In this use, biometric data is matched against previously stored data in the system. This matching generally returns a set of possible matches. From there, a final determination must be made with human intervention. This type of matching is normally done for physical access or law enforcement applications.

Biometrics can be used for authentication . If a user makes a claim about his/her identity, a biometric is used for authentication. The biometric comparison in this case will attempt to match the individual's biometric data to that of the stored information being claimed against. This is referred to as one-to-one matching . The result from this matching is a simple yes or no: Yes, the individual's claim is verified, or no, the claim cannot be verified. If the claim cannot be verified , no more results are provided to further narrow down the claim. This type of matching is generally done for logical access or physical access to specific parts of buildings .

Biometrics now seem the ideal solution. The user always possesses the physical trait and a password or token is not required for access. Later chapters will contain more detailed discussions on how strong the different biometrics are, and how susceptible they are to spoofing.

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Biometrics for Network Security
Biometrics for Network Security (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed)
ISBN: 0131015494
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 123
Authors: Paul Reid

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