Biometric Boom: How the Private Sector Commodifies Human Characteristics

Biometric technology has become an increasingly common part of daily life. Although biometrics have been used for decades, recent ad- vances and new uses have made the technology more prevalent, particu- larly in the private sector. This Note examines how widespread use of biometrics by the private sector is commodifying human characteristics. As the use of biometrics has become more extensive, it exacerbates and exposes individuals and industry to a number of risks and problems asso- ciated with biometrics. Despite public belief, biometric systems may be bypassed, hacked, or even fail. The more a characteristic is utilized, the less value it will hold for security purposes. Once compromised, a biome- tric cannot be replaced as would a password or other security device. This Note argues that there are strong justifications for a legal struc- ture that builds hurdles to slow the adoption of biometrics in the private sector. By examining the law and economics and personality theories of commodification, this Note identifies market failure and potential harm to personhood due to biometrics. The competing theories justify a reform to protect human characteristics from commodification. This Note presents a set of principles and tools based on defaults, disclosures, incen- tives, and taxation to discourage use of biometrics, buying time to streng- then the technology, educate the public, and establish legal safeguards for when the technology is compromised or fails

Modelling Smart Card Security Protocols in SystemC TLM

Smart cards are an example of advanced chip technology. They allow information transfer between the card holder and the system over secure networks, but they contain sensitive data related to both the card holder and the system, that has to be kept private and confidential. The objective of this work is to create an executable model of a smart card system, including the security protocols and transactions, and to examine the strengths and determine the weaknesses by running tests on the model. The security objectives have to be considered during the early stages of systems development and design, an executable model will give the designer the advantage of exploring the vulnerabilities early, and therefore enhancing the system security. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.0 is used to model the smart card security protocol. The executable model is programmed in SystemC with the Transaction Level Modeling (TLM) extensions. The final model was used to examine the effectiveness of a number of authentication mechanisms with different probabilities of failure. In addition, a number of probable attacks on the current security protocol were modeled to examine the vulnerabilities. The executable model shows that the smart card system security protocols and transactions need further improvement to withstand different types of security attacks

Fast computation of the performance evaluation of biometric systems: application to multibiometric

The performance evaluation of biometric systems is a crucial step when designing and evaluating such systems. The evaluation process uses the Equal Error Rate (EER) metric proposed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/IEC). The EER metric is a powerful metric which allows easily comparing and evaluating biometric systems. However, the computation time of the EER is, most of the time, very intensive. In this paper, we propose a fast method which computes an approximated value of the EER. We illustrate the benefit of the proposed method on two applications: the computing of non parametric confidence intervals and the use of genetic algorithms to compute the parameters of fusion functions. Experimental results show the superiority of the proposed EER approximation method in term of computing time, and the interest of its use to reduce the learning of parameters with genetic algorithms. The proposed method opens new perspectives for the development of secure multibiometrics systems by speeding up their computation time.Comment: Future Generation Computer Systems (2012

Wild Patterns: Ten Years After the Rise of Adversarial Machine Learning

Learning-based pattern classifiers, including deep networks, have shown impressive performance in several application domains, ranging from computer vision to cybersecurity. However, it has also been shown that adversarial input perturbations carefully crafted either at training or at test time can easily subvert their predictions. The vulnerability of machine learning to such wild patterns (also referred to as adversarial examples), along with the design of suitable countermeasures, have been investigated in the research field of adversarial machine learning. In this work, we provide a thorough overview of the evolution of this research area over the last ten years and beyond, starting from pioneering, earlier work on the security of non-deep learning algorithms up to more recent work aimed to understand the security properties of deep learning algorithms, in the context of computer vision and cybersecurity tasks. We report interesting connections between these apparently-different lines of work, highlighting common misconceptions related to the security evaluation of machine-learning algorithms. We review the main threat models and attacks defined to this end, and discuss the main limitations of current work, along with the corresponding future challenges towards the design of more secure learning algorithms.Comment: Accepted for publication on Pattern Recognition, 201

Evaluation of presentation attack detection under the context of common criteria

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorTHE USE OF Biometrics keeps growing. Every day, we use biometric recognition to unlock our phones or to have access to places such as the gym or the office, so we rely on what security manufacturers offer when protecting our privileges and private life. Moreover, an error in a biometric system can mean that a person can have access to an unintended property, critical infrastructure or cross a border. Thus, there is a growing interest on ensuring that biometric systems work correctly on two fronts: our personal information (smartphones, personal computers) and national security (borders, critical infrastructures). Given that nowadays we store increasing sensitive data on our mobile devices (documents, photos, bank accounts, etc.), it is crucial to know how secure the protection of the phone really is. Most new smartphones include an embedded fingerprint sensor due to its improved comfort, speed and, as manufacturers claim, security. In the last decades, many studies and tests have shown that it is possible to steal a person’s fingerprint and reproduce it, with the intention of impersonating them. This has become a bigger problem as the adoption of fingerprint sensor cell phones have become mainstream. For the case of border control and critical infrastructures, biometric recognition eases the task of person identification and black-list checking. Although the performance rates for verification and identification have dropped in the last decades, protection against vulnerabilities is still under heavy development. There have been cases in the past where fake fingers have been used to surpass the security of such entities. The first necessary step for overcoming these issues is to have a common ground for performing security evaluations. This way, different systems’ abilities to detect and reject fake fingerprints can be measured and compared against each other. This is achieved by standardization and the corresponding certification of biometric systems. The new software and hardware presentation attack detection techniques shall undergo tests that follow such standards. The aim of this Thesis is two-fold: evaluating commercial fingerprint biometric systems against presentation attacks (fake fingers) and developing a new presentation attack detection method for overcoming these attacks. Moreover, through this process, several contributions were proposed and accepted in international ISO standards. On the first matter, a few questions are meant to be answered: it is well known that it is possible to hack a smartphone using fake fingers made of Play-Doh and other easy-to-obtain materials but, to what extent? Is this true for all users or only for specialists with deep knowledge on Biometrics? Does it matter who the person doing the attack is, or are all attackers the same when they have the same base knowledge? Are smartphone fingerprint sensors as reliable as desktop sensors? What is the easiest way of stealing a fingerprint from someone? To answer these, five experiments were performed on several desktop and smartphone fingerprint readers, including many different attackers and fingerprint readers. As a general result, all smartphone capture devices could be successfully hacked by inexperienced people with no background in Biometrics. All of the evaluations followed the pertinent standards, ISO/IEC 30107 Parts 3 and 4 and Common Criteria and an analysis of the attack potential was carried out. Moreover, the knowledge gathered during this process served to make methodological contributions to the above-mentioned standards. Once some expertise had been gathered on attacking fingerprint sensors, it was decided to develop a new method to detect fake fingerprints. The aim was to find a low-cost and efficient system to solve this issue. As a result, a new optical system was used to capture fingerprints and classify them into real or fake samples. The system was tested by performing an evaluation using 5 different fake finger materials, obtaining much lower error rates than those reported in the state of the art at the moment this Thesis was written. The contributions of this Thesis include: • • Improvements on the presentation attack detection evaluation methodology. • • Contributions to ISO/IEC 30107 - Biometric presentation attack detection - Part 3: Testing and reporting and Part 4: Profile for evaluation of mobile devices. • • Presentation attack detection evaluations on commercial desktop and smartphone fingerprint sensors following ISO/IEC 30107-3 and 4. • • A new low-cost and efficient optical presentation attack detection mechanism and an evaluation on the said system.EL USO DE la Biometría está en constante crecimiento. Cada día, utilizamos reconocimiento biométrico para desbloquear nuestros teléfonos o para tener acceso a lugares como el gimnasio o la oficina, por lo que confiamos en lo que los fabricantes ofrecen para proteger nuestros privilegios y nuestra vida privada. Además, un error en un sistema biométrico puede significar que una persona pueda tener acceso a una propiedad no debida, a una infraestructura crítica o a cruzar una frontera. Por lo tanto, existe un interés creciente en asegurar que los sistemas biométricos funcionen correctamente en dos frentes: nuestra información personal (teléfonos inteligentes, ordenadores personales) y la seguridad nacional (fronteras, infraestructuras críticas). Dado que hoy en día almacenamos cada vez más datos sensibles en nuestros dispositivos móviles (documentos, fotos, cuentas bancarias, etc.), es crucial saber cómo de segura es realmente la protección del teléfono. La mayoría de los nuevos teléfonos inteligentes incluyen un sensor de huellas dactilares integrado debido a su mayor comodidad, velocidad y, como afirman los fabricantes, seguridad. En las últimas décadas, muchos estudios y pruebas han demostrado que es posible robar la huella dactilar de una persona y reproducirla, con la intención de hacerse pasar por ella. Esto se ha convertido en un problema mayor a medida que la adopción de los teléfonos celulares con sensor de huellas dactilares se ha ido generalizando. En el caso del control fronterizo y de las infraestructuras críticas, el reconocimiento biométrico facilita la tarea de identificación de las personas y la comprobación de listas negras. Aunque las tasas de rendimiento en materia de verificación e identificación han disminuido en las últimas décadas, la protección antifraude todavía está bajo intenso desarrollo. Existen casos en los que se han utilizado dedos falsos para vulnerar la seguridad de dichas entidades. El primer paso necesario para superar estos problemas es contar con una base común desde la que realizar evaluaciones de seguridad. De esta manera, se pueden medir y comparar las capacidades de los diferentes sistemas para detectar y rechazar huellas dactilares falsas. Esto se consigue mediante la estandarización y la correspondiente certificación de los sistemas biométricos. Las nuevas técnicas de detección de ataques de presentación de software y hardware deben someterse a pruebas que se ajusten a dichas normas. Esta Tesis tiene dos objetivos: evaluar los sistemas biométricos de huellas dactilares comerciales contra ataques de presentación (dedos falsos) y desarrollar un nuevo método de detección de ataques de presentación para disminuir la eficacia de estos ataques. Además, a través de este proceso, se propusieron y aceptaron varias contribuciones en las normas internacionales ISO. Sobre el primer asunto, hay que responder algunas preguntas: es bien sabido que es posible hackear un teléfono inteligente con dedos falsos hechos de Play-Doh y otros materiales fáciles de obtener, pero ¿hasta qué punto? ¿Es esto cierto para todos los usuarios o sólo para los especialistas con un profundo conocimiento de la Biometría? ¿Importa quién es la persona que realiza el ataque, o todos los atacantes son iguales cuando parte de la misma base de conocimiento? ¿Son los sensores de huellas dactilares de los teléfonos inteligentes tan fiables como los de sobremesa? ¿Cuál es la manera más fácil de robar una huella digital a alguien? Para responder estas preguntas, se realizaron cinco experimentos en varios lectores de huellas dactilares de escritorio y de teléfonos inteligentes, incluyendo muchos atacantes y lectores de huellas dactilares diferentes. Como resultado general, todos los dispositivos de captura pudieron ser hackeados con éxito por personas sin experiencia en Biometría. Todas las evaluaciones siguieron las normas pertinentes, ISO/IEC 30107 Partes 3 y 4 y Common Criteria y se llevó a cabo un análisis del potencial de ataque. Además, los conocimientos adquiridos durante este proceso sirvieron para aportar una contribución metodológica a las normas mencionadas. Una vez adquiridos algunos conocimientos sobre ataques a sensores de huellas dactilares, se decidió desarrollar un nuevo método para detectar huellas falsas. El objetivo era encontrar un sistema de bajo coste y eficiente para resolver este problema. Como resultado, se utilizó un nuevo sistema óptico para capturar las huellas dactilares y clasificarlas en muestras reales o falsas. El sistema se probó mediante la realización de una evaluación utilizando 5 materiales de dedos falsos diferentes, obteniendo tasas de error mucho más bajas que las reportadas en el estado del arte en el momento de redactar esta Tesis. Las contribuciones de esta Tesis incluyen: • • Mejoras en la metodología de evaluación de detección de ataques de presentación. • • Contribuciones a “ISO/IEC 30107 - Biometric presentation attack detection - Part 3: Testing and reporting” y “Part 4: Profile for evaluation of mobile devices”. • • Evaluaciones de detección de ataques de presentación en sensores de huellas dactilares comerciales de escritorio y de teléfonos inteligentes siguiendo la norma ISO/IEC 30107-3 y 4. • • Un nuevo y eficiente mecanismo óptico de detección de ataques de presentación, de bajo coste, y una evaluación de dicho sistema.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y Automática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Enrique Cabello Pardos.- Secretario: Almudena Lindoso Muñoz.- Vocal: Patrizio Campis

Evaluation methodology for fake samples detection in biometrics

Nowadays biometrics is being used in many applications where security is required. This fact causes that new threatens have appeared and that the number of attempts to break biometric systems has increased. From all potential attacks, those involving damage or thefts to users are the most worrying. Most of them could be avoided if acquisition sensors would have suitable approaches for aliveness detection at the capture process. Many providers claim that their products support these methods but unfortunately it has been discovered that some products do not detect fake samples. In this paper a methodology based on Common Criteria is given to evaluate, in an independent way, whether biometric capture devices implement methods for fake samples detection, and till which extent such methods are effective. This methodology has been tested with sensors from different modalities