Overview of Biometrics

Biometrics is not a particularly new idea but their prevalence is still quite limited.  They come with some fundamental pro’s and con’s which affect their suitability for deployment.

Biometrics Pro’s

• High degree of “uniqueness”
• A feature of the person so not particularly steal-able
• Difficult to forge
• Lots of different measurable elements and new ones are being discovered all the time making it flexible
• Process of scanning can take advantage of many elements at once creating a huge degree of uniqueness which we can use it to make it extremely difficult to forge.

Biometrics Con’s

• False accepts and false rejects exist due to the variable nature of the subjects and their environment
• Once the details of individuals biometrics are public they are non-revocable
• Can be considered invasive which can lead to user objection and low user acceptance

Getting the right level of CER (Crossover Error Rate) is important.  CER is the point at which false accepts and false rejects meet.  This point is effectively the point at which it is the most accurate.