RE: [ISN] Biometric Security Not Ready to Replace Passwords

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue May 07 2002 - 01:48:39 PDT

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    Forwarded from: Steve Vawter <svawterat_private>
    
    Could not this allow for some smart fellow to put their own device on
    the system with their own fingerprint, bypassing the security?  What
    type of security keeps this from occurring?
    
    > Their fingerprint-recognition devices keep the print data in the
    > devices themselves, not on a server or PC, and they have added other
    > security enhancements. Last year we looked at Precise Biometrics's
    > 100 SC. This year, the new USB-connected Precise 100 MC surpassed
    > our expectations, earning a Reviewer's Choice designation."
    
    Steve Vawter
    UNIX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR
    Zone Labs, Inc.
    1060 Howard Street
    San Francisco CA 94103
    ph    415-341-8323
    fax   415-341-8299
    cell  510-409-9184
    pager 877-933-0549
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: InfoSec News [mailto:isnat_private]
    Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 12:27 AM
    To: isnat_private
    Subject: [ISN] Biometric Security Not Ready to Replace Passwords 
    
    
    http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176325.html
    
    By Carlos A Soto, Government Computer News
    WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
    02 May 2002, 2:05 PM CST
     
    Biometrics vendors are doing their best to supplant passwords as the
    chief form of computer security, but Government Computer News Lab
    tests indicate that many of their products are not quite ready. Some
    developers have continued to improve already good devices, but others
    need to go back to the drawing board.
    
    Bad biometric security is worse than no security at all because it can
    lock out a legitimate user, admit an interloper or - perhaps most
    dangerous - lull a network administrator into a false sense of safety.
     
    For this review we examined six fingerprint-recognition devices and
    one voice-recognition device. A word of caution: An administrator
    cannot deploy large numbers of any of those fingerprint devices
    without third-party administrative software.
    
    [...]
    
    
    
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