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Introduction
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 highly
secure identification and personal verification solutions. As the level
of security breaches and transaction fraud increases, the need for
highly 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 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. |
