Biometrics


What is Biometrics? How is it used in security?


Biometrics are rising as an advanced layer to many personal and enterprise security systems. With the unique identifiers of your biology and behaviors, this may seem foolproof. However, biometric identity has made many cautious about its use as standalone authentication.


Modern cybersecurity is focused on reducing the risks for this powerful security solution: traditional passwords have long been a point of weakness for security systems. Biometrics aims to answer this issue by linking proof-of-identity to our bodies and behavior patterns.


What is Biometrics?

For a quick biometrics definition: Biometrics are biological measurements — or physical characteristics — that can be used to identify individuals. For example, fingerprint mapping, facial recognition, and retina scans are all forms of biometric technology, but these are just the most recognized options.


Researchers claim the shape of an ear, the way someone sits and walks, unique body odors, the veins in one’s hands, and even facial contortions are other unique identifiers. These traits further define biometrics.


Three Types of Biometrics Security

While they can have other applications, biometrics have been often used in security, and you can mostly label biometrics into three groups:


Biological biometrics

Morphological biometrics

Behavioral biometrics

Biological biometrics use traits at a genetic and molecular level. These may include features like DNA or your blood, which might be assessed through a sample of your body’s fluids.


Morphological biometrics involve the structure of your body. More physical traits like your eye, fingerprint, or the shape of your face can be mapped for use with security scanners.


Behavioral biometrics are based on patterns unique to each person. How you walk, speak, or even type on a keyboard can be an indication of your identity if these patterns are tracked.



Biometric Security Works

Biometric identification has a growing role in our everyday security. Physical characteristics are relatively fixed and individualized — even in the case of twins. Each person’s unique biometric identity can be used to replace or at least augment password systems for computers, phones, and restricted access rooms and buildings.


Once biometric data is obtained and mapped, it is then saved to be matched with future attempts at access. Most of the time, this data is encrypted and stored within the device or in a remote server.


Biometrics - Identity & Privacy Concerns

Biometric authentication is convenient, but privacy advocates fear that biometric security erodes personal privacy. The concern is that personal data could be collected easily and without consent.


Facial recognition is a part of everyday life in Chinese cities, where it's used for routine purchases, and London is famously dotted with CCTV cameras. Now, New York, Chicago, and Moscow are linking CCTV cameras in their cities to facial recognition databases to help local police fight crime. Ramping up the technology, Carnegie Mellon University is developing a camera that can scan the irises of people in crowds from a distance of 10 meters.


In 2018, facial recognition was introduced in Dubai airport, where travelers are photographed by 80 cameras as they pass through a tunnel in a virtual aquarium.


Biometric Data Security Concerns

A more immediate problem is that databases of personal information are targets for hackers. For example, when the U.S. Office of Personnel Management was hacked in 2015, cybercriminals made off with the fingerprints of 5.6 million government employees, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft.


Storing biometric data on a device – like the iPhone’s TouchID or Face ID – is considered safer than storing it with a service provider, even when the data is encrypted.


That risk is similar to that of a password database, in which hackers may breach the system and steal data that’s not effectively secured. The ramifications, however, are significantly different. If a password is compromised, it can be changed. Biometric data, in contract, remains the same forever.


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