Biometrics is Changing Your Life

Theft is easy when the criminal uses your tools that normally allow you to access your life. Lost passwords, house keys, car keys and credit card numbers are among the numerous tangibles we cherish with our lives that are lost almost daily. Biometrics is the use of numerous relatively new technologies which replaces access to sensitive stores from what you have to who you are. The applications use numerous aspects of the human architecture to identify who you are and what you have access to. The average person's knowledge of Biometrics is limited to either finger print analysis or Science fiction movies but it is so much more.

Voice prints:

Similar to voice activated dialing on a cell phone, the identity of a person is stored as information on a distal graph called a spectrogram. This stores the sound frequency and time spacing of words to be compared against what you say every time you try to access a system. Your voice is unique only to you because of the shape of your own vocal cavities and the way you move your mouth when you speak. Some companies use voice prints for remote access to information or allow authorization when the authorizer isn't present. Some believe that this system is flawed because anyone can covertly record speech but most, if not all voice print analysis programs scan for evidence of tampering in the speech.

Iris scanning:

Iris Scanning is one of the most secure forms in common use today. It uses both visible and near infrared light to take a clear, high contrast picture of a person's iris. When the picture is taken you stand 3-10 inches from a camera and a computer locates the center of your pupil, the edge of the iris, eyelids and eyelashes then analyses the patterns and translates them into a code. The iris scan actually pinpoints 200 points and features, completely unique to the individual and of your iris remains the same with time so its completely secure. How secure? Well, The computed odds of a mistake in the Iris I.D. procedure is 1 in 1.0 x10 ^78, or a 1 with 78 zero's after that.

Vein Scanners:

Vein scanners has arguable the highest level of security in biometrics. Vein structure in the human body is truly unique to the individual, identical twins even have different vein structure. A vein scanner takes advantage of your own blood by emitting an Infrared light, which the hemoglobin is responsive too, which in turn makes your veins appear black in a picture. Then software creates a reference template based on the shape and location of the vein structure and compares it against what authorized users it has stored in memory.

Much like any other I.D. system, a person must enroll in the system before it can recognize it. Some countries and organizations already use biometrics to identify their citizens or employees. For example in Brazil an effort to catalog all citizens finger prints is under way and in Iraq several ways of cataloging citizens by their physical attributes are around.
While the applications of Biometrics is obvious, many have voiced their concerns over these anatomical cataloging techniques. Imagine a world where companies can sell their customers biometric data like emails and phone numbers. Then track your buying habits and activities without your consent. Perhaps a massive database with information about everyone in a country could be hacked into and the subsequent insanity would be problematic. Despite all the concerns about Biometrics, it seems to be preferable to the old fashioned signatures and key security methods and it definitely won't go away.

Glossary of terms:
False Accept Rate (FAR): How many imposters the system accepts
False Reject Rate (FRR): How many authorized users the system rejects
Failure to Enroll Rate (FTE): How many people's traits are of insufficient quality for the system to use
Failure to Acquire Rate (FTA): How many times a user must present the trait before the system correctly accepts or rejects them
Enrollment: The first time you use a biometric system, it records basic information about you, like your name or an identification number. It then captures an image or recording of your specific trait.
Storage: Contrary to what you may see in movies, most systems don't store the complete image or recording. They instead analyze your trait and translate it into a code or graph. Some systems also record this data onto a smart card that you carry with you.
Comparison: The next time you use the system, it compares the trait you present to the information on file. Then, it either accepts or rejects that you are who you claim to be.