What are biometric devices in information security?


Biometrics is the recognition of a person by the measurement of their biological characteristics. For instance, users identifying themselves to a computer or constructing by their fingerprint or voice is treated a biometrics identification.

Biometric devices measure biological elements (like human features) to implement functions, including logging health/fitness information and authenticating users. There are multiple uses for the technology and a several methods for its implementation. Types of biometric data involve visual, audio, spatial and behavioral. Biometric security devices play an essential role in checking a person's identity by enforcing access control methods through their unique biological traits.

Biometrics provide a reliable solution for the establishment of the distinctiveness of identity depends on "who an individual is", instead of what they knows or carries. Biometric Systems automatically verify a person's identity depends on its anatomical and behavioral characteristics.

Biometric traits define a strong and undeviating link between a person and its identity, these traits cannot be simply lost or forgotten or faked, because biometric systems needed the user to be present at the time of authentication. Some biometric systems are more frequent than others, yet they are neither private nor efficient, all biometrics have their strengths and weaknesses.

There are some biometric technologies are available in the industry today that can be used for security. Biometric technologies vary in their capabilities, implementation and complexity. They can be used to check or create a person’s identity and they all share multiple elements.

Biometric identification systems are essentially pattern identification systems. They use acquisition scanning devices and cameras to capture pictures, or measurements of an individual’s characteristics, and computer hardware and software to extract, encode, save, and compare these features. Usually this process is completely automated, which creates decision-making very fast, in general cases, taking only a few seconds.

It is based on the application, biometric systems can be used in multiple modes including verification or identification. Verification is also known as authentication is used to check a person’s identity to authenticate that people are who they claim to be. Identification can be used to create people’s identity “to decide who the people are.

It includes using biometric security software to automatically identify people depends on their behavioural or biological features. The biometric technology currently used most often in physical access control is fingerprint identification because of its lower cost. Between 2D fingerprint sensors, multispectral sensors are provide a better choice over optical sensors. They are slightly more high-priced but provide higher accuracy and more reliable performance.

Other identifiers used such as finger veins, palm veins, faces and irises. For highsecurity environments, iris identification supports the best accuracy, followed by palm vein recognition. Some biometric security systems check identities using one or more detection technologies, while others don’t check the identity at all to maintain costs low.

Updated on: 09-Mar-2022

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