Book Image

Identity Management with Biometrics

By : Lisa Bock
Book Image

Identity Management with Biometrics

By: Lisa Bock

Overview of this book

Biometric technologies provide a variety of robust and convenient methods to securely identify and authenticate an individual. Unlike a password or smart card, biometrics can identify an attribute that is not only unique to an individual, but also eliminates any possibility of duplication. Identity Management with Biometrics is a solid introduction for anyone who wants to explore biometric techniques, such as fingerprint, iris, voice, palm print, and facial recognition. Starting with an overview of biometrics, you’ll learn the various uses and applications of biometrics in fintech, buildings, border control, and many other fields. You’ll understand the characteristics of an optimal biometric system and then review different types of errors and discover the benefits of multi-factor authentication. You’ll also get to grips with analyzing a biometric system for usability and accuracy and understand the process of implementation, testing, and deployment, along with addressing privacy concerns. The book outlines the importance of protecting biometric data by using encryption and shows you which factors to consider and how to analyze them before investing in biometric technologies. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed with a variety of recognition processes and be able to make the right decisions when implementing biometric technologies.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1 –Understanding Biometric Authentication
6
Section 2 – Applying Biometric Technologies
12
Section 3 – Deploying a Large-Scale Biometric System

Matching templates and preventing spoofing

Once the encoded template is created, the system will either identify or authenticate, according to the design.

The template is compared against a record in search of a match. As with any biometric, the match will never be 100%. Matching occurs as a result of whether or not the threshold is acceptable.

One way to evaluate whether a sample matches a template is by calculating the Hamming distance. The Hamming distance is the result of comparing two binary values, as we’ll see next.

Calculating the Hamming distance

The Hamming distance is a comparison of two binary values. To calculate the Hamming distance, we use an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on both values. When complete, count the number of bits that are equal to 1, and that will be the Hamming distance.

Important note

An XOR operation is a logical operation that compares two values. In an XOR operation, if A =1 and B =1 but not both, the output is 1.

For example...