Biometrics

Biometrics are technologies for measuring and analyzing human physiological characteristics such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns, and hand measurements, especially for authentication purposes.

Attack Prevention » Authentication » Biometrics

When To Use Biometrics
The focus of this paper is not the possible use-cases of biometry, but rather it is those limitations that are neither biometry-type specific nor implementation specific and that make biometric measures limited in their scope of possible uses. Biometric systems become common over the years. Their ease of use for the end user and their perceived security make them seem to be the best solution to any problem involving user authentication. Although biometric systems can provide fast and secure user authentication with minimal user intervention, they have several inherent limitations making them inappropriate for most environments where authentication is used.

The Lure of Biometrics
This article introduces biometrics and discusses some of the complex issues associated with use of biometrics for identification and authentication of individuals and its impact on both standalone and networked information systems, as well as on physical security. The agenda is not to show whether biometrics is your best investment or a useless thing, these two polar viewpoints share the same quality of being oversimplifications, to say the least. It also certainly does not purport or try to tell everything there is to tell about biometrics or its applications.

Biometric Authentication, An Introduction
Historically, usernames and passwords are the most common form of authenticating computer users. They are also both the worst management headache for IT staff and the biggest network security hole in existence. Many help desks handle more password related calls than any other category. Users routinely share their passwords with one another. We have passwords on yellow sticky notes on the monitor and under the keyboard. If you don't find the password there, try the Rolodex under "P" for Password.

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