RE: CDSA-biometrics

From: Steve Vinsik (svinsikat_private)
Date: Thu Jun 28 2001 - 04:38:25 PDT

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    That is true, in a very few cases, a certain biometric authentication method
    may not work for a particular person.  That is why there are several
    different methods available.  There are fingerprint scanners that when a
    finger is placed on the sensor matrix, a very small signal is coupled from
    the drive ring to the subdermal layer of the skin. This signal follows the
    ridges and valleys of the true fingerprint. What that means is that if the
    surface of a fingerprint is damaged or worn, the underlying fingerprint is
    still accessible.  
    
    As to the point of a person may lose a finger or an eye.  I would suggest
    that they would have a much larger problem to deal with than worrying about
    logging on to their computer.  Also, typical fingerprint authentication
    systems enroll more than one finger for verification.  This helps to deal
    with issues such as cuts on a finger.
      
    As to the second point that biometric devices are expensive. A pc microphone
    comes with most computers these days, as well as pc net cams. There are
    currently 5 vendors that include fingerprint scanners in their laptops and
    several that include built in net cams.
    
    Steve
    
     
    -----Original Message-----
    From: KuroiNeko [mailto:evpopkovat_private]
    Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 11:41 PM
    To: secprogat_private
    Subject: Re: CDSA-biometrics
    
    
    > I'm  doing   a  thesis  in   implementing  CDSA  (Common   Data  Security
    > Architecture)
    > in a program used for secure authentication. I'm going to use biometric
    > devices for this purpose.
    
     Don't expect  biometrics to be  all-it-takes. A real-life example.  A bank
    had a dactiloscopic  scanner to authenticate users of  rented private vault
    cells. A woman came to rent a  cell, but they simply could not establish an
    account for her  because she was a  typist and her fingertips  were so soft
    and papillar  pattern was so  blurry (very  thin skin) that  scanner simply
    could not identify her.
     Also, marketoids  of biometric  systems tend  not to  tell you  one really
    important thing: you should  not assume that a part of  human body used for
    auth will always remain and always be the same. A person can loose a finger
    in  a  disaster, ditto  an  eye.  Skin  tends  to change  fast,  especially
    fingertips, voices change, even adults' voices.
     Provided that  biometric scanners  and recognition  software still  cost a
    fortune, and they  still have to be backed up  by traditional auth methods,
    real advantage of biometrics is still questionable.
    
    
    --
    
     ÌĤ¯Ç­¤ÏÁͤòÊá¤é¤Ì
    



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