RE: CDSA-biometrics

From: Ken Pfeil (Kenat_private)
Date: Tue Jun 26 2001 - 18:21:29 PDT

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    >  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.
    
    Sounds like a very poor quality reader. It only takes 12 minutiae points to
    positively identify someone beyond any shadow of doubt. The most common
    problems regarding fingerprint recognition are placement on the reader (Not
    enough minutiae readable or using the thumb instead of forefinger) and
    overly dry fingers (Most common in the elderly).
    
    >  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.
    
    That's why most Biometric vendors recommend the enrollment of more than one
    finger. In case of damage, band-aid, etc. Granted, the metrics and rate of
    change will vary from person to person (If their is any deviation over time
    fact) but normally not enough to effect fingerprint reads if a good
    enrollement was established as recommended in the first place. And if you
    lose all ten of your fingers, fingerprint authentication won't do you any
    good anyway.
    
    >  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.
    
    Not neccesarily true. You can get a good quality FP reader (with software)
    for under $100. That's one of the myths regarding biometrics. Another common
    myth is that the whole fingerprint image is captured and stored.
    
    Best Regards,
    Ken
    



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