The Biometric Consortium's charter was formally approved on December
7, 1995, by the Facilities Protection Committee, a committee that reports
to the Security Policy Board through the Security Policy Forum. The
Security Policy Board was established by Presidential Decision Directive/NSC-29
on September 16, 1994, for the coordination, formulation, evaluation,
and oversight of US national security policy. The Security Policy Board
reports to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
"Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on
a physiological or behavioral characteristic."
Examples of human traits used for biometric recognition include fingerprints,
speech, face, retina, iris, handwritten signature, hand geometry, and
wrist veins.
Biometric recognition can be used in identification mode,
where the biometric system identifies a person from the entire enrolled
population by searching a database for a match.
A system also can be used in verification mode, where the
biometric system authenticates a person's claimed identity from his/her
previously enrolled pattern.
Using biometrics for identifying and authenticating human beings offers
some unique advantages. Only biometric authentication bases an identification
on an intrinsic part of a human being. Tokens, such as smart cards,
magnetic stripe cards, physical keys, and so forth, can be lost, stolen,
duplicated, or left at home. Passwords can be forgotten, shared, or
observed.
While all biometric systems have their own advantages and disadvantages,
there are some common characteristics needed to make a biometric system
usable.
First, the biometric must be based upon a distinguishable trait. For
example, for nearly a century, law enforcement has used fingerprints to
identify people. There is a great deal of scientific data supporting
the idea that "no two fingerprints are alike."
Newer methods, even those with a great deal of scientific support,
such as DNA-based genetic matching, sometimes do not hold up in court.
Another key aspect is how user-friendly is the system? Most
people find it acceptable to have their pictures taken by video cameras
or to speak into a microphone. In the United States, using a fingerprint
sensor does not seem to be much of a problem. In some other countries,
however, there is strong cultural opposition to touching something
that has been touched by many other people.
While cost is always a concern, most implementers today are sophisticated
enough to understand that it is not only the initial cost of the sensor
or the matching software that is involved. Often, the life-cycle support
cost of providing system administration support and an enrollment operator
can overtake the initial cost of the hardware. Also of key importance
is accuracy. Some terms that are used to describe the accuracy of biometric
systems include false-acceptance rate (percentage of impostors
accepted), false-rejection rate (percentage of authorized
users rejected), and equal-error rate (when the decision threshold
is adjusted so that the false- acceptance rate equals the false-rejection
rate).
When discussing the accuracy of a biometric system, it is often beneficial
to talk about the equal-error rate or at least to consider the false-acceptance
rate and false-rejection rate together. For many systems, the threshold
can be adjusted to ensure that virtually no impostors will be accepted.
Unfortunately, this often means an unreasonably high number of authorized
users will be rejected.
To summarize, a good biometric system is one that is low cost, fast,
accurate, and easy to use."
We at Biometrics Direct believe our solutions are among the best in
the industry. A special emphasis of our company’s vision
is the utilization of advanced biometric technology to increase the
security of our clients’ homes, workplaces, networks and data. The
small and medium business environments make up the bulk of the US economy
and their security is fundamental to the defense of our national financial
system. Effective solutions must offer increased security of
data, networks and access to facilities while maintaining personal
privacy.
