Acceptability of Biometric Security System

Authors Avatar

Acceptability of Biometric Security System

 

Author: S.M Sarwarul Islam Rizvi

Author: Mohammad Sifatullah Bhuiyan

Course: Scientific Writing and research methodology

Group: 101

Date: 2010-01-07


Table of Contents

 


Abstract

Various systems need to uniquely identify its users and also to verify their identity. Example of such system is secure access in buildings, data centre, personal computers and laptops, mobile phone and ATM machines etc. To accomplish the task, the systems need a method that can be based on ‘what the user knows’, ‘what the user has’ or ‘what the user is’. Traditional password based authentication system is based on ‘what the user knows’. And biometrics authentication system or biometrics is based on ‘what the use is’. The main goal of this paper is to find out the acceptability of biometrics over traditional password based authentication method.

1 Introduction

This chapter presents the reader with an over all idea about the contents of the whole research paper. A precise background about the research topic is discussed here. A description of the related research area is also discussed with the purpose of the research as well as the goal and audience.

  1. 1.1 Background

Security is always considered as an important issue of every system. People have always felt the necessity to have a method to uniquely identify an entity which will be permanent and provide better performance than existing ones, which have acceptability to all. And obviously the method will provide hundred percent security. Pursuing these necessities, different methods have been developed at times. Some of them have been accepted and some became extinct. While talking about secure system professor Eugene H. Spafford said that, “The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts. But that could not stop people from trying to make the systems absolutely secure.

For a security system to work properly it is necessary that authentication is performed accurately. Matt Bishop defined authentication as, “binding of an identity to a subject”. Information provided by the entity makes the system confirm its identity. This information may be based on ‘what the entity knows’, ‘what the entity has’, ‘what the entity is’ or even on ‘where the entity is Among all the stated sources ‘what the entity is’ is little bit different, as here the entity itself is the means of its authentication. And here comes Biometrics as a means of authentication method. Biometric recognition, or simply biometrics, can be defined as a means of automatic recognition of individuals based on their physiological characteristics, behavioural characteristics or combination of bot Some examples of Biometric methods are finger print, hand geometry, retina pattern, voice recognition, keystroke and pointing pattern.

  1. 1.2 Description of the Research area

The word Biometrics is derived from two Greek words ‘bio’ which means life and ‘metric’ which means to measur. Ross Anderson defined Biometrics as a method of identifying people by measuring some aspects of their physiological characteristics, behavioural characteristics or even combination of the bot

The use of biometrics as an authentication technology is definitely not a new one. People have been using handwritten signatures for hundreds of years. History says in 14th century merchants in China used stamped handprint and footprints of children to distinguish them from one another [9]. And now, as the technology is developing day by day, the biometric technology is also getting more and more updated. Numbers of new biometric methods have been introduced in the market over the last couple of decades. All of the different Biometrics methods have some pros and cons of their own which has been discussed in detail elsewher.

  1. 1.3 The purpose of the Research and its role within the research area

The purpose of the research was to assess the acceptability of Biometrics Security System to general people. Our findings will help to resolve some issues of different biometrics methods regarding user acceptability and will also help to make it more effective and useful.

  1. 1.4 Goal and Audience

Our main goal was to assess the acceptability of Biometric Security system over the traditional personal identification system. Our audiences are the people who want to work with biometric security system for the general people. People who want to know about the acceptability of Biometric security system are also in the range of our audience.

  1. 2 Materials and Methods

To accomplish our research work and to achieve the goal we have divided our work into some steps. First of all we have prepared a research question. Then we have carried out a literature study. We have studied a number of research papers, journals, publications and some related books. The purpose of the study was to acquire a clear understanding about Biometrics, the level of security and reliability provided by Biometrics over other available authentication methods and to be familiar with different Biometric techniques. From our reading and observation we formulated a hypothesis. Then we developed a questionnaire and distributed it among people from different backgrounds.

Join now!
  1. 2.1 Research Question

What is the acceptance level of biometrics security system over the traditional ‘what the user knows’ based authentication system?

  1. 2.2 Literature Review

Security Engineering, A Guide to Building dependable distributed systems, by Ross Anderson: Basically we started our study with this book. And found it as a bible of not only Biometrics but also for many other security aspects. Our research supervisor Louise Yngstrom referred us the book as a good source of information.

Biometrics, Identity verification in a Networked world, by Samir Nanavati, Michael Thieme and Raj Nanavati: This book also helped us to make a ...

This is a preview of the whole essay