Biometrics: From science fiction to business reality

Clain Anderson, IBM   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Security Stories  

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December 2, 2004 (Computerworld) -- An employee arrives at work in the morning and unlocks the office door by placing his hand on an electronic scanner.
Once inside, he sits down at his computer and using electronic impressions from his fingerprint, logs onto the company network. Later, in need of confidential files, he proceeds to the company's archive room, where his iris is read by a camera, his identity is verified, and admittance is granted. This may sound like the scene from a new science fiction movie, but it is in fact a reality. Once thought to be the wave of the future, biometric technologies are increasingly being used by businesses to provide an added layer of security and protection against theft.
Where it all began
Biometric technologies made their debut in the law enforcement industry, where police officers and investigators used automated fingerprint identification to identify criminal suspects, saving time and money. Now, several years later, biometric systems are being streamlined into various vertical industries. The International Biometric Group projects that global revenues for biometrics will reach $1.2 billion this year. Leading the trend in adoption will be today's top businesses.
Contributing factors
In an era characterized by hackers and identity fraud, guarding against the multitude of security threats has become an increasingly challenging task for companies. When you consider that, according to the 2003 Annual Computer Crime and Security Survey published by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI, the average notebook PC sells for $1,500 to $2,500, and the value of the information on that notebook is worth approximately $250,000, it's no wonder why protecting company data is a top concern for IT managers.
The fingerprint reader, one of the first biometric devices introduced, remains today the most pervasive and probably the most effective. A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that fingerprint identification systems have approached 99% accuracy. However, physical changes such as cuts and the extreme case of severed fingers can result in misidentification. Such incidents are rare, though, and fingerprint readers wrongly accept only approximately one in 10,000 scans.
How they work
Biometric devices recognize and store information on users' eyes, fingerprints and even voices before granting access to confidential data. Each biometric system has its own unique characteristics, and the methods for confirming a user's identity vary. Some systems attempt to verify the user's identity locally, while others rely on matching identifying elements at a central database.

For example, a user will typically present his fingerprint, palm, voice, iris or retina to a device that collects the personal information. Some devices will match that data locally with stored patterns and tell the local

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