Biometric Authentication in Infrastructure Security By: John Armington, Purdy Ho, Paul Koznek and Richard Martinez G. Davida, Y. Frankel and O. Rees (Eds.): InfraSec 2002, LNCS 2437, pp. 1-18, Copyright: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002 Presented by: Ana Stilinovich

Article Summary The article introduces us to different techniques of biometric authentication, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as legal and cultural issues that arise from using these biometric techniques for security measures. The article introduces us to different techniques of biometric authentication, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as legal and cultural issues that arise from using these biometric techniques for security measures. NB: Definition for Biometrics as given by Dr. Jim Wayman is “The automatic identification or identity verification of living, human individuals based on behavioral or physiological characteristics”. NB: Definition for Biometrics as given by Dr. Jim Wayman is “The automatic identification or identity verification of living, human individuals based on behavioral or physiological characteristics”.

Appreciative Comments The article gives a good introduction to four biometric techniques; how they work and what their advantages and flaws are. The article gives a good introduction to four biometric techniques; how they work and what their advantages and flaws are. The article in general is easy to follow, as the layout of the article follows the same structure. The article in general is easy to follow, as the layout of the article follows the same structure.

Critical Comment The article is too general. It talks about the market for biometrics and standards, but fails to talk about the infrastructure security and just mentions other biometric authentication techniques by name. The article is too general. It talks about the market for biometrics and standards, but fails to talk about the infrastructure security and just mentions other biometric authentication techniques by name.

What is Infrastructure Security Infrastructure security is a way of organizing physical infrastructure, applications, administration and procedures to support information security, where infrastructure stands for ‘the underlying system’.

Biometric techniques Speaker Verification Speaker Verification - Text-dependent/fixed-phrase - Text-independent/unconstrained - Text-dependent/prompted-phrase Face Recognition Face Recognition - Viisage uses Eigenface - Visionics uses Local Feature Analysis

Biometric techniques continued… Finger Scan Finger Scan - images reduced to minutia points - fingerprint patterns based on DNA Iris Scan Iris Scan - patterns of iris tissue reduced to minutia points - patterns not based on DNA

Conclusion The author does not mention anything about the infrastructure security, but gives a fairly detailed analysis of the four biometric techniques. How comfortable would you feel of an organization obtaining your biometric information with your permission and storing it for the future use, when you do not know the security measures implemented in that system? How comfortable would you feel of an organization obtaining your biometric information with your permission and storing it for the future use, when you do not know the security measures implemented in that system?